Ge6075 notes rejinpaul i

PRATHYUSHA ENGINEERING COLLEGE
SUBJECT CODE//NAME – GE6075/PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING
FACULTY NAME – SREEJA VIJAY
SUBJECT EXPERT - SREEJA VIJAY 1
GE 6075 – PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN ENGINEERING
UNIT 1
OBJECTIVES (WHY ENGINEERING ETHICS?)
The objectives of this course on ‗Professional Ethics and Human Values‘ are:
(a) To understand the moral values that ought to guide the Engineering profession,
(b) Resolve the moral issues in the profession,and
(c) Justify the moral judgment concerning the profession. It is intended to develop a set of
beliefs, attitudes, and habits that engineers should display concerning morality.
1.1 MORALS
Morals are the welfare principles enunciated by the wise people, based on their experience and
wisdom. They were edited, changed or modified or evolved to suit the geography of the region,
rulers (dynasty), and in accordance with development of knowledge in science and technology
and with time.
Morality is concerned with principles and practices of morals such as:
(a) What ought or ought not to be done in a given situation?
(b) What is right or wrong about the handling of a situation? and
(c) What is good or bad about the people, policies, and ideals involved?
Morality is different from Ethics in the following ways:
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1.2 VALUES
1.2.1 Definition
Humans have the unique ability to define their identity, choose their values and establish their
beliefs. All three of these directly influence a person‘s behavior. People will act congruent with
their personal values or what they deem to be important.
A value is defined as a principle that promotes well-being or prevents harm.‖
Values are our guidelines for our success—our paradigm about what is acceptable.‖
Personal values are defined as: ―Emotional beliefs in principles regarded as particularly
favorable or important for the individual.‖
Our values associate emotions to our experiences and guide our choices, decisions and actions.
―Values are the scales we use to weigh our choices for our actions, whether to move towards or
away from something.‖
Not all values have the same weight or priority. Some are more important than others and must
be satisfied before others can be addressed. Dr. Abraham Maslow illustrated this with his
hierarchy of human needs. Survival has a higher priority than security, which has a higher
priority than social acceptance. A person‘s beliefs, values and identity are usually acquired
unconsciously based on his personal experience or observations of others‘ experiences as to what
produces desirable or undesirable results in the environment. A baby‘s learning to walk and talk
is a clear example of identifying with human adults, valuing the act of being able to have the
mobility and communication ability of an adult and the belief, based on unconscious observation,
that humans can do walk and do talk with each other. By positive affirmations, one can modify
or create new beliefs about a person‘s identity and/or what is important to him (values).
1.2.2 Types of Values
The five core human values are: (1) Right conduct, (2) Peace, (3) Truth, (4) Love, and
(5) Nonviolence.
1. Values related to RIGHT CONDUCT are:
(a) SELF-HELP SKILLS: Care of possessions, diet, hygiene, modesty, posture, self reliance,
and tidy appearance
(b) SOCIAL SKILLS: Good behavior, good manners, good relationships, helpfulness, No
wastage, and good environment, and
(c) ETHICAL SKILLS: Code of conduct, courage, dependability, duty, efficiency, ingenuity,
initiative, perseverance, punctuality, resourcefulness, respect for all, and responsibility
2. Values related to PEACE are: Attention, calmness, concentration, contentment, dignity,
discipline, equality, equanimity, faithfulness, focus, gratitude, happiness, harmony, humility,
inner silence, optimism, patience, reflection, satisfaction, self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-
control, self-discipline, self-esteem, self-respect, sense control, tolerance, and understanding
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3. Values related to TRUTH are: Accuracy, curiosity, discernment, fairness, fearlessness,
honesty, integrity (unity of thought, word, and deed), intuition, justice, optimism, purity, quest
for knowledge, reason, self-analysis, sincerity, sprit of enquiry, synthesis, trust, truthfulness, and
determination.
4. Values related to LOVE are: Acceptance, affection, care, compassion, consideration,
dedication, devotion, empathy, forbearance, forgiveness, friendship, generosity, gentleness,
humanness, interdependence, kindness, patience, patriotism, reverence, sacrifice, selflessness,
service, sharing, sympathy, thoughtfulness, tolerance and trust
5. Values related to NON-VIOLENCE are:
(a)PSYCHOLOGICAL: Benevolence, compassion, concern for others, consideration,
forbearance, forgiveness, manners, happiness, loyalty, morality, and universal love
(b) SOCIAL: Appreciation of other cultures and religions, brotherhood, care of environment,
citizenship, equality, harmlessness, national awareness, perseverance, respect for property, and
social justice.
PERSEVERANCE is defined as persistence, determination, resolution, tenacity, dedication,
commitment, constancy, steadfastness, stamina, endurance. Perseverance builds character.
ACCURACY means freedom from mistake or error; conformity to truth or to a standard or
model and exactness.
DISCERNMENT means discrimination, perception, penetration, and insight.
1.3 ETHICS
Ethics is the word that refers to morals, values, and beliefs of the individuals, family or the
society. Basically it is an activity and process of inquiry. Secondly, it is different from non-moral
problems, when dealing with issues and controversies. Thirdly, ethics refers to a particular set of
beliefs, attitudes, and habits of individuals or family or groups concerned with morals. Fourth, it
is used to mean ‗morally correct‘.
The study on ethics helps to know the people‘s beliefs, values, and morals, learn the good and
bad of them, and practice them to maximize their well-being and happiness. It involves the
inquiry on the existing situations, form judgments and resolve the issues. In addition, ethics tells
us how to live, to respond to issues, through the duties, rights, responsibilities, and obligations..
In ethics, the focus is to study and apply the principles and practices, universally.
1.4 INTEGRITY
Integrity is defined as the unity of thought, word and deed (honesty) and open mindedness. It
includes the capacity to communicate the factual information so that others can make well-
informed decisions.
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Moral integrity is defined as a virtue, which reflects a consistency of one‘s attitudes, emotions,
and conduct in relation to justified moral values.
1.5 WORK ETHICS
Industry and Society are the two systems which interact with each other and are interdependent.
Society requires industry/business system which provides manufacturing, distribution and
consumption activities. It needs investment (capital input), labor (input), supply (raw materials),
production (industries, business organizations), marketing and distribution (transport), and
consumption (public, customer). A lot of transactions (and interactions) between these sub-
systems involving people are needed for the welfare of the society. It is here, the work ethics
plays an essential role.
Work ethics is defined as a set of attitudes concerned with the value of work, which forms the
motivational orientation.
Many complex social problems exist in the industrial/business scenario, because:
1. The people desire to be recognized as individuals and treated with dignity, as living human
beings. Work is intrinsically valuable so far as it is enjoyable or meaningful in allowing personal
expression and self-fulfillment. Meaningful work is worth doing for the sense of personal
identity and the self-esteem it holds.
2. Economic independence: Work is the major instrumental good in life. It is the main source of
providing the income needed to avoid economic dependence on others, for obtaining desired
materials and services, and for achieving status and recognition from others.
3. Pay as well as the pace of work should be in commensurate with the expertise required,
acquired, and utilized in the persons. Exploitation and bargained pay should be discouraged.
4. Privacy (personal freedom) of the employee, including women, is to be protected. At the
same time, confidentiality of the employer is also to be protected. Mutual trust and loyalty both
ways play major roles in this aspect.
5. Security during job and upon retirement: This concept is being accepted only in
government jobs, public limited companies, and corporate organizations. This situation has
created tension in the Indian scene.
6. Recognition to non-work activities, such as leisure, paid holiday on the day of visit of a
dignitary, social service, and other developmental activities. The workers in prosperous
countries are less willing to consider ‗work‘ as their prime interest in life. They claim that such
service activities give them peace of mind and happiness. However, such a trend is likely to
decline the work ethics.
7. Hard work and productivity are very essential for the success of an industry. The quality
of work life deserves to be improved. Hard labor, undignified jobs (human-drawn rikshaw,
people carrying night soil), and hazardous jobs are to be made less straining, dignified, and
safer. Automation and CNC systems to a large extent have been successful in lessening the
human burden. Still, many a hard work can not be replaced by ‗virtual work‘, in the near
future.
8. Employee alienation: Absence of or inadequate ‗recognition and reward system‘ and
‗grievance redressal system‘, lack of transparency in policy implementation, factions in trade
unions etc. lead to ethical problems, affecting the work ethics. Participative management, quality
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circles, job rotation, and flexible working hours are some of the measures to counter this
situation.
9. A different view of work ethics: Work is considered as a necessary evil. It is a thing one
must do in order to avoid worse evils, such as dependency and poverty. That is a major source of
anxiety and unhappiness.
10. As per the Protestant Work Ethics, It is to be obtained rationally, diligently, and without
compromising with other values such as spending time with one‘s family and not exploiting or
harming others
By work ethics, duties to the self, family, society, and nation are fulfilled. Rights of the
individuals are respected and nourished. Values and virtues are cultivated and enjoyed by all
human beings.
1.6 SERVICE LEARNING
Service learning refers to learning the service policies, procedures, norms, and conditions, other
than ‗the technical trade practices‘. The service learning includes the characteristics of the work,
basic requirements, security of the job, and awareness of the procedures, while taking decisions
and actions. It helps the individuals to interact ethically with colleagues, to effectively coordinate
with other departments, to interact cordially with suppliers as well as the customers, and to
maintain all these friendly interactions.
Alternatively, the service learning may be defined as the non-paid activity, in which service is
provided on voluntary basis to the public (have-nots in the community), non-profitable
institutions, and charitable organizations. It is the service during learning. This includes training
or study on real life problems and their possible solutions, during the formal learning, i.e.,
courses of study. In the industrial scenario, adoption, study, and development of public health or
welfare or safety system of a village or school is an example of service learning by the
employees. The engineering student analyzing and executing a socially-relevant project is
another example of service learning. The service learning is a methodology falling under the
category of experiential education. It is one of the forms of experiential learning and community
service opportunities. It is distinguished in the following ways:
1. Connection to curriculum: Integrating the learning into a service project is a key to successful
service learning. Academic ties should be clear and built upon existing disciplinary skills.
2. Learner’s voice: Beyond being actively engaged in the project, trainees have the opportunity
to select, design, implement, and evaluate their service activity.
3. Reflection: Structured opportunities are created to think, talk, and write about the service
experience. The balance of reflection and action allows the trainee to be constantly aware of the
impact of their work.
4. Partners in the community: Partnership with community agencies are used to identify genuine
needs, provide mentorship, and contribute input such as labor and expertise towards completing
the project.
1.7 VIRTUES
Virtues are positive and preferred values. Virtues are desirable attitudes or character traits,
motives and emotions that enable us to be successful and to act in ways that develop our highest
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potential. They energize and enable us to pursue the ideals that we have adopted. Honesty,
courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, transparency, self-control, and
prudence are all examples of virtues.
Virtues are tendencies which include, solving problems through peaceful and constructive means
and follow the path of the golden mean between the extremes of ‗excess and deficiency‘. They
are like habits, once acquired, they become characteristics of a person. The virtuous person is the
ethical person.
1.7.1 Civic Virtues
Civic virtues are the moral duties and rights, as a citizen of the village or the country or an
integral part of the society and environment. An individual may exhibit civic virtues by voting,
volunteering, and organizing welfare groups and meetings.
The duties are:
1. To pay taxes to the local government and state, in time.
2. To keep the surroundings clean and green.
3. Not to pollute the water, land, and air by following hygiene and proper garbage disposal.
For example, not to burn wood, tyres, plastic materials, spit in the open, even not to smoke in the
open, and not to cause nuisance to the public, are some of the civic (duties) virtues.
4. To follow the road safety rules.
On the other hand, the rights are:
1. To vote the local or state government.
2. To contest in the elections to the local or state government.
3. To seek a public welfare facility such as a school, hospital or a community hall or transport
or communication facility, for the residents.
4. To establish a green and safe environment, pollution free, corruption free, and to follow
ethical principles. People are said to have the right to breathe in fresh air, by not allowing
smoking in public.
5. People have inalienable right to accept or reject a project in their area. One has the right to
seek legal remedy, in this respect, through public interest petition.
These virtues are divided into four categories:
1. Civic Knowledge
Citizens must understand what the Constitution says about how the government is working, and
what the government is supposed to do and what not to do.
We must understand the basis of our responsibilities as citizens, besides duties and rights.
We must be able to recognize when the government or another citizen infringes upon our rights.
It implies that the government requires the participation of the enlightened citizens, to serve and
survive.
2. Self-Restraint
For citizens to live in a free society with limited government each citizen must be able to control
or restrain himself; otherwise, we would need a police state—that is, a dictatorial government to
maintain safety and order.
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3. Self-Assertion
Self-assertion means that citizens must be proud of their rights, and have the courage to stand
up in public and defend their rights. Sometimes, a government may usurp the very rights that it
was created to protect. In such cases, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that
government (e.g., voting rights, rights call back).
4. Self-Reliance
Citizens who cannot provide for themselves will need a large government to take care of them.
Once citizens become dependent on government for their basic needs, the people are no longer in
a position to demand that government act within the confines of the Constitution. Self-reliant
citizens are free citizens in the sense that they are not dependent on others for their basic
needs. They do not need a large provider-government, which has the potential to become an
oppressive government, to meet those needs. Only a strong self-reliant citizenry will be able to
enjoy fully the blessings of liberty.
These civic virtues, applicable to local, state, and central governments, nourish freedom and civil
liberty at the root of democracy.
1.7 RESPECT FOR OTHERS
This is a basic requirement for nurturing friendship, team work, and for the synergy it promotes
and sustains. The principles enunciated in this regard are:
1. Recognize and accept the existence of other persons as human beings, because they have a
right to live, just as you have.
2. Respect others’ ideas (decisions), words, and labor (actions).. Appreciate colleagues and
subordinates on their positive actions. Criticize constructively and encourage them. They are
bound to improve their performance, by learning properly and by putting more efforts.
3. Show ‘goodwill’ on others. Love others. Allow others to grow. Basically, the goodwill
reflects on the originator and multiplies itself on everybody. This will facilitate collinearity,
focus, coherence, and strength to achieve the goals.
1.8 LIVING PEACEFULLY
To live peacefully, one should start install peace within (self). Then one can spread peace to
family, organisation where one works, and then to the world, including the environment.
One should adopt the following means to live peacefully, in the world:
Nurture
1. Order in one‘s life (self-regulation, discipline, and duty).
2. Pure thoughts in one‘s soul (loving others, blessing others, friendly, and not criticizing
or hurting others by thought, word or deed).
3. Creativity in one‘s head (useful and constructive).
4. Beauty in one‘s heart (love, service, happiness, and peace).
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Get
5. Good health/body (physical strength for service).
Act
6. Help the needy with head, heart, and hands (charity). Service to the poor is considered
holier than the service to God.
7. Not hurting and torturing others either physically, verbally, or mentally.
The following are the factors that promote living, with internal and external peace:
1. Conducive environment (safe, ventilated, illuminated and comfortable).
2. Secured job and motivated with ‗recognition and reward‘.
3. Absence of threat or tension by pressure due to limitations of money or time.
4. Absence of unnecessary interference or disturbance, except as guidelines.
5. Healthy labor relations and family situations.
6. Service to the needy (physically and mentally-challenged) with love and sympathy.
1.9 CARING
Caring is feeling for others. It is a process which exhibits the interest in, and support for, the
welfare of others with fairness, impartiality and justice in all activities, among the
employees, in the context of professional ethics. It includes showing respect to the feelings of
others, and also respecting and preserving the interests of all others concerned. Caring is
reflected in activities such as friendship, membership in social clubs and professional societies,
and through various transactions in the family, fraternity, community, country and in
international councils.
In the present day context, caring for the environment (including the fauna and flora) has
become a necessity for our very survival
1.10 SHARING
Primarily, caring influences ‘sharing’. Sharing is a process that describes the transfer of
knowledge (teaching, learning, and information), experience (training), commodities (material
possession) and facilities with others. The transfer should be genuine, legal, positive, voluntary,
and without any expectation in return. However, the proprietary information should not be
shared with outsiders.
Through this process of sharing, experience, expertise, wisdom and other benefits reach more
people faster. Sharing is voluntary and it can not be driven by force, but motivated successfully
through ethical principles. In short, sharing is ‗charity‘
For the humanity, ‗sharing’ is a culture. The ‗happiness and wealth‘ are multiplied and the
‗crimes and sufferings‘ are reduced, by sharing. It paves the way for peace and obviates
militancy. Philosophically, the sharing maximizes the happiness for all the human beings. In
terms of psychology, the fear, divide, and distrust between the ‗haves‘ and ‗have-nots‘ disappear.
Sharing not only paves the way to prosperity, early and easily, and sustains it.
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Economically speaking, benefits are maximized as there is no wastage or loss, and everybody
gets one‘s needs fulfilled and satisfied.
Commercially speaking, the profit is maximized.
Technologically, the productivity and utilization are maximized by sharing.
In the industrial arena, code-sharing in airlines for bookings on air travels and the common
Effluent Treatment Plant constructed for small-scale industries in the industrial estates, are some
of the examples of sharing. The co-operative societies for producers as well as consumers are
typical examples of sharing of the goods, profit and other social benefits.
Here is an anecdote that illustrates the benefits of sharing
The shouting...the screaming…the fighting. That was the breaking point for me as I poured out my woes to my
mother. “How can I get them to share as well as we did as kids?”, I pleaded. Laughter was her reply. “Well,
thanks a lot, mom,” I said. “I’m sorry,” she chuckled, “but you didn’t always share.” She went on to explain
about the “Box of Misbehaved Toys.” Every time we fought over a toy, she would quietly take that and put it
into the box. Yes, I did remember that box. I also remember it wasn’t always fair since one person may have
caused all the commotion. But my mother was consistent. No matter what the reason for the struggle was, the
toy disappeared into the box for one week. No questions asked, and no chance of parole. My siblings and I soon
learned that sharing a toy was better than losing it. Often, one person would decide to just wait for a time
when no one else was playing with the toy, rather than fight and lose it. It was not a perfect system, but I
tried it anyway
That box was a shock to my kids and it was close to full, within a few days…..As the weeks progressed, I
noticed the box was emptier and the arguing was less. Today, I heard quiet music to my ears as my son said to
his sister, “That’s OK, you can play with it.”
This story illustrates the worthy joy of sharing as compared to the pain of losing.
1.11 HONESTY
Honesty is a virtue, and it is exhibited in two aspects namely,
(a) Truthfulness and
(b) Trustworthiness.
Truthfulness is to face the responsibilities upon telling truth. One should keep one‘s word or
promise. By admitting one‘s mistake committed it is easy to fix them.
Reliable engineering judgment, maintenance of truth, defending the truth, and communicating
the truth, only when it does ‗good‘ to others, are some of the reflections of truthfulness. But
trustworthiness is maintaining integrity and taking responsibility for personal performance.
Honesty is mirrored in many ways. The common reflections are:
(a) Beliefs (intellectual honesty).
(b) Communication (writing and speech).
(c) Decisions (ideas, discretion).
(d) Actions (means, timing, place, and the goals). and
(e) Intended and unintended results achieved.
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As against this, some of the actions of an engineer that leads to dishonesty are:
1. Lying: Honesty implies avoidance of lying. An engineer may communicate wrong or distorted
test results intentionally or otherwise. It is giving wrong information to the right people.
2. Deliberate deception: An engineer may judge or decide on matters one is not familiar or with
insufficient data or proof, to impress upon the customers or employers. This is a self deceit.
3. Withholding the information: It means hiding the facts during communication to one‘s
superior or subordinate, intentionally or otherwise.
4. Not seeking the truth: Some engineers accept the information or data, without applying their
mind and seeking the truth.
5. Not maintaining confidentiality: It is giving right information to wrong people. The engineers
should keep information of their customers/clients or of their employers confidential and should
not discuss them with others.
6. Giving professional judgment under the influence of extraneous factors such as personal
benefits and prejudice. The laws, experience, social welfare, and even conscience are given a go-
bye by such actions.
1.12 COURAGE
Courage is the tendency to accept and face risks and difficult tasks in rational ways. Self-
confidence is the basic requirement to nurture courage.
Courage is classified into three types, based on the types of risks, namely
(a) Physical courage,
(b) Social courage, and
(c) Intellectual courage.
In physical courage, the thrust is on the adequacy of the physical strength, including the muscle
power and armaments.
The social courage involves the decisions and actions to change the order, based on the
conviction for or against certain social behaviors. This requires leadership abilities, including
empathy and sacrifice, to mobilize and motivate the followers, for the social cause.
The intellectual courage is inculcated in people through acquired knowledge, experience,
games, tactics, education, and training.
In professional ethics, courage is applicable to the employers, employees, public, and the press.
Look before you leap. One should perform Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threat
(SWOT) analysis. Calculate (estimate) the risks, compare with one‘s strengths, and anticipate the
end results, while taking decisions and before getting into action. Learning from the past helps.
Past experience and wisdom gained from self-study or others will prepare one to plan and act
with self-confidence, succeed in achieving the desired ethical goals through ethical means.
Opportunities and threat existing and likely to exist in future are also to be studied and measures
to be planned. This anticipatory management will help one to face the future with courage.
Facing the criticism, owning responsibility, and accepting the mistakes or errors when committed
and exposed are the expressions of courage. In fact, this sets their mind to be vigilant against the
past
mistakes, and creative in finding the alternate means to achieve the desired objectives.
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EXAMPLE : Prof. Sathish Dhawan, Chief of ISRO, was reported to have exhibited his courage and owned
responsibility, when the previous space mission failed, but credited Prof. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (now our revered
President), when the subsequent mission succeeded.
The courageous people own and have shown the following characteristics, in their professions:
(a) Perseverance (sustained hard work),
(b) Experimentation (preparedness to face the challenges, that is, unexpected or unintended
results),
(c) Involvement (attitude, clear and firm resolve to act), and
(d) Commitment (willing to get into action and to reach the desired goals by any alternative but
ethical means).
1.13 VALUING TIME
Time is rare resource. Once it is spent, it is lost for ever. It can not be either stored or recovered.
Hence, time is the most perishable and most valuable resource too. This resource is continuously
spent, whether any decision or action is taken or not.
The proverbs, ‗Time and tide wait for nobody‘ and ‗Procrastination is the thief of time‘ amply
illustrate this point.
An anecdote to highlight the ‗value of time‘ is as follows:
To realize the value of one year, ask the student who has failed in the examinations;.
To realize the value of one month, ask the mother who has delivered a premature baby;
To realize the value of one week, ask the editor of weekly;
To realize the value of one day, ask the daily-wage laborer;
To realize now the value of one hour, ask the lovers longing to meet;
To realize the value of one minute, ask a person who has missed the train;
To realize the value of one second, ask the person who has survived an accident;
Tto realize the value one milli second, ask the person who has won the bronze medal in Olympics;
Tto realize the value of one micro second, ask the NASA team of scientists;
To realize the value of one nano-second, ask a Hardware engineer!;
If you have still not realized the value of time, wait; are you an Engineer?
1.15 COOPERATION
It is a team-spirit present with every individual engaged in engineering. Co-operation is activity
between two persons or sectors that aims at integration of operations (synergy), while not
sacrificing the autonomy of either party. Further, working together ensures, coherence, i.e.,
blending of different skills required,towards common goals.Willingness to understand others,
think and act together and putting this into practice, is cooperation.Cooperation promotes
collinearity, coherence (blend), co-ordination (activities linked in sequence or priority) and the
synergy (maximizing the output, by reinforcement).
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According to professional ethics, cooperation should exist or be developed, and maintained, at
several levels; between the employers and employees, between the superiors and subordinates,
among the colleagues, between the producers and the suppliers (spare parts), and between the
organisation and its customers.
The codes of ethics of various professional societies insist on appropriate cooperation to nourish
the industry.
The absence of cooperation leads to lack of communication, misinformation, void in
communication, and undue delay between supply, production, marketing, and consumption. This
is likely to demoralize and frustrate the employees, leading to collapse of the industry over time
and an economic loss to the society.
The impediments to successful cooperation are:
1. Clash of ego of individuals.
2. Lack of leadership and motivation.
3. Conflicts of interests, based on region, religion, language, and caste.
4. Ignorance and lack of interest. By careful planning, motivation, leadership, fostering and
rewarding team work, professionalism and humanism beyond the ‗divides‘, training on
appreciation to different cultures, mutual understanding ‗cooperation‘ can be developed and also
sustained.
1.16 COMMITMENT
Commitment means alignment to goals and adherence to ethical principles during the activities.
One must believe in one‘s action performed and the expected end results (confidence). Holding
sustained interest and firmness, in whatever ethical means one follows, with the fervent attitude
and hope that one will achieve the goals, is commitment. It is the driving force to realize success.
1.17 EMPATHY
Empathy is social radar. Sensing what others feel about, without their open talk, is the essence of
empathy. Empathy begins with showing concern, and then obtaining and understanding the
feelings of others, from others‘ point of view. It is also defined as the ability to put one‘s self into
the psychological frame or reference or point of view of another, to know what the other person
feels. It includes the imaginative projection into other‘s feelings and understanding of other‘s
background such as parentage, physical and mental state, economic situation, and association.
This is an essential ingredient for good human relations and transactions.
To practice ‗Empathy‘, a leader must have or develop in him, the following characteristics
1. Understanding others: It means sensing others feelings and perspectives, and taking active
interest in their welfare.
2. Service orientation: It is anticipation, recognition and meeting the needs of the clients or
customers.
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3. Developing others: This means identification of their needs and bolstering their abilities. In
developing others, the one should inculcate in him the ‗listening skill‘ first.
Communication = 22% reading and writing + 23% speaking + 55% listening
One should get the feed back, acknowledge the strength and accomplishments, and then coach
the individual, by informing about what was wrong, and giving correct feedback and positive
expectation of the subject‘s abilities and the resulting performance.
4. Leveraging diversity (opportunities through diverse people): This leads to enhanced
organizational learning, flexibility, and profitability.
5. Political awareness: It is the ability to read political and social currents in an organization.
The benefits of empathy include:
1. Good customer relations (in sales and service, in partnering).
2. Harmonious labor relations (in manufacturing).
3. Good vendor-producer relationship (in partnering.)
Through the above three, we can maximize the output and profit, as well as minimizing the loss.
While dealing with customer complaints, empathy is very effective in realising the unbiased
views of others and in admitting one‘s own limitations and failures.
According to Peter Drucker, purpose of the business is not to make a sale, but to make and keep
a customer.
1.18 SELF-CONFIDENCE
Certainty in one‘s own capabilities, values, and goals, is self-confidence. Such people are usually
positive thinking, flexible and willing to change. They respect others so much as they respect
themselves.
Self-confidence is positive attitude, wherein the individual has some positive and realistic view
of himself, with respect to the situations in which one gets involved. The people with self-
confidence exhibit courage to get into action and unshakable faith in their abilities, whatever
may be their positions. They are not influenced by threats or challenges and are prepared to face
them and the natural or unexpected consequences.
The self-confidence in a person develops a sense of partnership, respect, and accountability, and
this helps the organization to obtain maximum ideas, efforts, and guidelines from its employees.
The people with self-confidence have the following characteristics:
1. A self-assured standing,
2. Willing to listen to learn from others and adopt (flexibility),
3. Frank to speak the truth, and
4. Respect others’ efforts and give due credit.
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On the contrary, some leaders expose others when failure occurs, and own the credit when
success comes.
The factors that shape self-confidence in a person are:
1. Heredity (attitudes of parents) and family environment (elders),
2. Friendship (influence of friends/colleagues),
3. Influence of superiors/role models, and
4. Training in the organization ( e.g., training by Technical Evangelists at Infosys Technologies).
The following methodologies are effective in developing self-confidence in a person:
1. Encouraging SWOT analysis. By evaluating their strength and weakness, they can anticipate
and be prepared to face the results.
2. Training to evaluate risks and face them (self-acceptance).
3. Self-talk . It is conditioning the mind for preparing the self to act, without any doubt on his
capabilities. This make one accepts himself while still striving for improvement.
4. Study and group discussion, on the history of leaders and innovators (e.g., Sam Walton of
Wal-Mart, USA).
1.19 CHALLENGES IN THE WORK PLACE
The biggest workplace challenge is said to be the employee‘s work ethics: showing up to work
every day (interest in work and attendance), showing up to work on time (punctuality), taking
pride in the quality of their work, commitment to the job, and getting along with others. This
situation demands inculcation of good character in the workplace by employees.
1.19.1 Character
It is a characteristic property that defines the behavior of an individual. It is the pattern of virtues
(morally-desirable features). Character includes attributes that determine a person‘s moral and
ethical actions and responses. It is also the ground on which morals and values blossom.
People are divided into several categories, according to common tendencies such as ruthless,
aggressiveness, and ambition, constricting selfishness, stinginess, or cheerfulness, generosity and
goodwill. Individuals vary not only in the type of their character but also in the degree. Those
whose lives are determined and directed by the prevailing habits, fashions, beliefs, attitudes,
opinions and values of the society in which they live have at best a developed social as opposed
to an individual character.
The character is exhibited through conduct. Character is determined by the expectations of
society. Many act and live within its norms, refusing to fall below the required social minimum,
failing to rise above the maximum expected of a normal member of the group. On one extreme
are those that do not even conform to the minimum standards, and fail to acquire the socially-
required behaviors, attitudes and values. These individuals have an unformed social character.
At the other extreme are those whose beliefs, attitudes and values are determined internally by
the strength of their own convictions. These are individuals with developed minds and formed
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characters of their own. Individuals do not live or act in a vacuum. They exist and act in a human
social environment of other people that constantly act on them and react to their actions. They
also live in a natural environment of physical objects and material forces such as the winds and
rains.
And those with occult and spiritual traditions recognize that there is also a subtle environment of
other planes of existence, both higher planes of spiritual influence and lower planes of negative
forces in universal nature seeking to act on the lives. All of the social, material and the occult
planes constitute the field of human activity.
Each of them functions according to its own laws or principles. Each of them has its own
characteristic modes of action and influence on human life.
Character is the expression of the personality of a human being, and that it reveals itself in one‘s
conduct.
1.19.2 The Four Temperaments
The original endowment or native element in character with which the individual starts life is
practically identical with what the Ancients recognized as temperament.
From the times of Hippocrates, they distinguished four main types of temperaments:
the Sanguine,
the Choleric,
the Phlegmatic, and the
Melancholic.
1.19.3 Types of Character
From the four fundamental temperaments, various classifications of character have been adopted
by different psychologists. The intellectual, the emotional, and the volitional or energetic are the
chief types.
1.19.4 Ethics and Character
While psychology investigates the growth of different types of character, ethics considers the
relative value of such types and the virtues which constitute them. The effect on the person‘s
character of a particular form of conduct is a universally accepted as a test of its moral quality.
Different systems of ethics emphasize different virtues in constituting the ideal moral character.
With the utilitarian, who places the ethical end in the maximum happiness for the whole
community, benevolence will form the primary element in the ideal character.
For the stoic, fortitude and self-control are the chief excellences.
In all conceptions of ideal character, firmness of will, fortitude, constancy in adhering to
principle or in pursuit of a noble aim are held important.
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1.19.5 Education and Character
The aim of education is not only the cultivation of the intellect but also the formation of moral
character. Increased intelligence or physical skill may as easily be employed to the detriment or
benefit of the community, if not accompanied by improved will. It is the function of ethics to
determine the ideals of human character. The theory and science of education are to study the
processes by which that end may be attained.
1.19.6 Building Character in the Workplace
Managers have to influence and employ creative means of stressing the importance of good
character in the workplace, in the following ways
1. Employee Hiring, Training, and Promotion Activities
(a) Institute and adopt an organization policy statement to positive character in the workplace.
For example, commitment to civility pledges. This may be communicated through printing on
the back of the business cards of the employees.
(b) Prominently and explicitly include character considerations in recruiting procedures, during
interviews and in the hiring deliberations.
(c) Emphasize the importance of character and adherence to the ‗six pillars‘ of character in
orientation, initial job training, and during in-service training. The six pillars of character are the
ethical values, such as: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.
Respect means showing high regard for self, others, authority, property and country. It includes
showing appreciation for cultural diversity by valuing all people as human beings.
Responsibility is
(i) being accountable for one‘s actions,
(ii) being dependable in carrying out obligations and duties,
(iii) being reliable and consistent in word and action, and
(iv) being committed to community development.
Integrity or fairness means showing the inner strength and courage to be truthful, trustworthy,
fair and honest in all things. It includes acting justly and honorably. Caring means being kind,
considerate, courteous, helpful, friendly and generous to others, and being compassionate by
treating others as you would like to be treated. Citizenship means accepting and adopting civic
rights and duties as a citizen of the country.
(d) Include evaluation of fundamental character values such as honesty, promise keeping,
accountability, fairness, and caring, in appraisals/reviews.
(e) Institute recognition and reward system for the employees who exemplify the positive
character. for example, awards and medals.
(f) Think of your employees, especially the younger ones, as people whose personal and work
values will be influenced by what you expect of them and how you treat them.
(g) Think of your employees as present or future mentors, coaches, and volunteers.
2. Internal Communication
Use internal communication channels to create a friendly environment that praises positive role
modeling at the workplace and in the community by encouraging voluntarism, and mentoring,
e.g., through
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(a) Internal newsletters,
(b) Workplace posters in canteens and recreation rooms,
(c) Mailers, and
(d) Electronic mails.
3. External Communication
In relations with customers, vendors and others, consciously communicate affirming messages
about character and ethics, such as
(a) Advertise and market honoring consensual values (the six pillars),
(b) Assure that none of your products and services undermines character building,
(c) Include positive messages about voluntarism and celebrate, and
(d) ‗Character counts‘ week in advertising, billings and other mailers.
4. Financial and Human Resources
(a) Support local and national ‗character‘ projects and the activities of the members by
encouraging staff members to get involved. Offer incentives such as paying employees for the
time they contribute at a local youth-service organization.
(b) Sponsor ‗character‘ movement through financial support.
5. Community Outreach
(a) Use public outreach structures to encourage mentoring and other character-building
programs.
(b) Encourage educational and youth organizations to become active in character building.
(c) Use corporate influence to encourage business groups (chambers of commerce, conference
boards, and Rotary clubs) and other companies to support ‗character‘ building.
1.20 SPIRITUALITY
Spirituality is a way of living that emphasizes the constant awareness and recognition of the
spiritual dimension (mind and its development) of nature and people, with a dynamic balance
between the material development and the spiritual development. This is said to be the great
virtue of Indian philosophy and for Indians. Sometimes, spirituality includes the faith or belief in
supernatural power/ God, regarding the worldly events. It functions as a fertilizer for the soil
‗character‘ to blossom into values and morals.
Spirituality includes creativity, communication, recognition of the individual as human being (as
opposed to a life-less machine), respect to others, acceptance (stop finding faults with colleagues
and accept them the way they are), vision (looking beyond the obvious and not believing anyone
blindly), and partnership (not being too authoritative, and always sharing responsibility with
others, for better returns).
Spirituality is motivation as it encourages the colleagues to perform better. Lack of motivation
leads to isolation. Spirituality is also energy: Be energetic and flexible to adapt to challenging
and changing situations. Spirituality is flexibility as well. One should not be too dominating.
Make space for everyone and learn to recognize and accept people the way they are.
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Tolerance and empathy are the reflections of spirituality. Blue and saffron colors are said to be
associated with spirituality. Creativity in spirituality means conscious efforts to see things
differently, to break out of habits and outdated beliefs to find new ways of thinking, doing and
being. Suppression of creativity leads to violence. People are naturally creative. Creativity
includes the use of color, humor and freedom to enhance productivity.
1.20.1 Spirituality in the Workplace
Building spirituality in the workplace:
Spirituality is promoted in the workplace by adhering to the following activities:
1. Verbally respect the individuals as humans and recognize their values in all decisions and
actions.
2. Get to know the people with whom you work and know what is important to them. Know their
goals, desires, and dreams too.
3. State your personal ethics and your beliefs clearly.
4. Support causes outside the business.
5. Encourage leaders to use value-based discretion in making decisions.
6. Demonstrate your own self-knowledge and spirituality in all your actions.
7. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
1.20.2 Sprituality for Corporate Excellence
The spiritual traits to be developed for excellence in corporate activities are listed as follows:
1. Self-awareness — Realization of self-potential. A human has immense capability but it needs
to be developed.
2. Alertness in observation and quickness in decision making, i.e., spontaneity which includes
quick reflexes, no delay but also no hasty decisions.
3. Being visionary and value based — This includes an attitude towards future of the
organization and the society, with clear objectives.
4. Holism — Whole system or comprehensive views and interconnected with different aspects.
Holistic thinking, which means the welfare of the self, family, organization and the society
including all other living beings and environment.
5. Compassion — Sympathy, empathy and concern for others. These are essential for not only
building the team but also for its effective functioning.
6. Respect for diversity — It means search for unity in diversity i.e., respect others and their
views.
7. Moral Autonomy — It means action based on rational and moral judgment. One need not
follow the crowd or majority i.e., band-wagon effect.
8. Creative thinking and constant reasoning — Think if we can do something new and if we can
improve further?
9. Ability to analyze and synthesize — Refrain from doing something only traditional.
10. Positive views of adversity — Make adversities one‘s source of power
11. Humility — The attitude to accept criticism (it requires courage) and willing to correct. It
includes modesty and acknowledging the work of colleagues.
12. Sense of vocation — Treat the duty as a service to society, besides your organization.
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UNIT II - ENGINEERING ETHICS
• Engineers have an ethical and social responsibility to themselves, their clients and society.
• Practically (although there is much debate about this), engineering ethics is about balancing cost,
schedule, and risk.
ENGINEERING ETHICS is:
• the study of moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and organizations involved in
engineering and
• the study of related questions about moral ideals, character, policies and relationships of people and
organizations involved in technological activity.
TRAINING IN PREVENTIVE ETHICS
• Stimulating the moral imagination
• Recognizing ethical issues
• Developing analytical skills
• Eliciting a sense of responsibility
• Tolerating disagreement and ambiguity
IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBILITY
• Self-interest.
• Fear.
• Self-deception.
• Ignorance.
• Egocentric tendencies.
• Microscopic vision.
• Groupthink.
QUESTIONABLE ENGINEERING PRACTICES
• Trimming – ―smoothing of irregularities to make data look extremely accurate and precise‖
• Cooking – ―retaining only those results that fit the theory and discarding others‖.
• Forging – ―inventing some or all of the research data…‖
• Plagiarism – misappropriating intellectual property.
• Conflicts of interest (such as accepting gifts.)
– actual
– potential
– apparent
CLEARLY WRONG ENGINEERING PRACTICES
• Lying
• Deliberate deception
• Withholding information
• Failing to adequately promote the dissemination of information
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• Failure to seek out the truth
• Revealing confidential or proprietary information
• Allowing one‘s judgment to be corrupted.
SENSES OF EXPRESSION OF ENGG. ETHICS
 Ethics is an activity and area of inquiry. It is the activity of understanding moral values, resolving
moral issues and the area of study resulting from that activity.
 When we speak of ethical problems, issues and controversies, we mean to distinguish them from
non moral problems.
 Ethics is used to refer to the particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits that a person or group
displays concerning moralities.
 Ethics and its grammatical variants can be used as synonyms for „morally correct‟.
VARIETIES or APPROACHES OF MORAL ISSUES
MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everyday problems that can take on significant proportions in an
engineer‟s life or entire engineering office.
MACRO-ETHICS addresses societal problems that are often shunted aside and are not addressed until
they unexpectedly resurface on a regional or national scale.
MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING
(SOME EXAMPLES)
4.1. An inspector discovered faulty construction equipment and applied a violation tag, preventing its use.
The supervisor, a construction manager viewed the case as a minor abrasion of the safety regulations and
ordered the removal of the tag to speed up the project. When the inspector objected to this, he was
threatened with disciplinary action.
4.2. An electric utility company applied for a permit to operate a nuclear power plant. The licensing
agency was interested in knowing what emergency measures had been established for humans safety in
case of reactor malfunctioning. The utility engineers described the alarm system and arrangements with
local hospitals for treatment. They did not emphasize that this measures applied to plant personnel only
and that they had no plans for the surrounding population. When enquired about their omission, they said
it was not their responsibility.
4.3. A chemical plant dumped wastes in a landfill. Hazardous substances found their way into the
underground water table. The plant‟s engineers were aware of the situation but did not change the method
of disposal because their competitors did it the same cheap way, and no law explicitly forbade the
practice.
4.4. Electronics Company ABC geared up for production of its own version of a popular new item. The
product was not yet ready for sale, but even so, pictures and impressive specifications appeared in
advertisements. Prospective customers were led to believe that it was available off the shelf and were
drawn away from competing lines.
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TYPES OF INQUIRIES
1. NORMATIVE INQUIRY
These are about „what ought to be‟ and „what is good‟. These questions identify and also justify the
morally desirable norms or standards.
Some of the questions are:
A. How far engineers are obligated to protect public safety in given situations?
B. When should engineers start whistle blowing on dangerous practices of their employers?
C. Whose values are primary in taking a moral decision, employee, public or govt?
D. Why are engineers obligated to protect public safety?
E. When is govt justified in interfering on such issues and why?
2. CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY:
These questions should lead to clarifications on concepts, principles and issues in ethics. Examples are:
A) What is „SAFETY‟ and how is it related to „RISK‟
B) „Protect the safety, health and welfare of public‟-What does this statement mean?
C) What is a bribe?
D) What is a „profession‟ and who are „professionals‟?
3. FACTUAL (DESCRIPTIVE) INQUIRIES
These are inquiries used to uncover information using scientific techniques. These inquiries get to
information about business realities, history of engineering profession, procedures used in assessment of
risks and engineers psychology.
Why study ENGINEERING ETHICS
ENGINEERING ETHICS is a means to increase the ability of concerned engineers, managers, citizens
and others to responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological activities.
MORAL DILEMMMA
There are three types of complexities.
 VAGUENESS: This complexity arises due to the fact that it is not clear to individuals as to which
moral considerations or principles apply to their situation.
CONFLICTING REASONS: Even when it is perfectly clear as to which moral principle is applicable
to one‘s situation, there could develop a situation where in two or more clearly applicable moral
principles come into conflict.
 DISAGREEMENT: Individuals and groups may disagree how to interpret, apply and balance moral
reasons in particular situations.
Steps in confronting MORAL DILEMMAS:
i) Identify the relevant moral factors and reasons.
ii) Gather all available facts that are pertinent to the moral factors involved.
iii) Rank the moral considerations in the order of their importance as they apply to the situation.
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iv) Consider alternative course of action, tracing the full implications of each, as ways of solving
dilemma.
v) Talk with colleagues, seeking the suggestions and perspectives of the dilemma.
vi) Arrive at a carefully reasoned judgment by weighing all the relevant moral factors and reasons in light
of facts.
All the above steps are distinct, even though they are interrelated and can often be taken jointly
MORAL AUTONOMY
• This is viewed as the skill and habit of thinking rationally about ethical issues on the basis of moral
concerns independently or by self determination.
• Autonomous individuals think for themselves and do not assume that customs are always right.
• They seek to reason and live by general principles.
• Their motivation is to do what is morally reasonable for its own sake, maintaining integrity, self-respect,
and respect for others.
―One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the
penalty… is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.‖ Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Letter
from a Birmingham Jail, 1963.
A person becomes morally autonomous by improving various practical skills listed below:
i) Proficiency is recognizing moral problems and issues in engineering.
ii) Skill in comprehending, clarifying and critically assessing arguments on opposing sides of moral
issues.
iii) The ability to form consistent and comprehensive viewpoints based upon consideration of relevant
facts.
iv) Awareness of alternate responses to issues and creative solutions for practical difficulties.
v) Sensitivity to genuine difficulties and subtleties
vi) Increased precision in the use of a common ethical language necessary to express and also defend
one‘s views adequately.
vii) Appreciation of possibilities of using rational dialogue in resolving moral conflicts and the need for
tolerance of differences in perspective among orally reasonable people.
viii) A sense of importance of integrating one‘s professional life and personal convictions i.e. maintaining
one‘s moral integrity.
KOHLBERG’S THEORY
STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• Pre-conventional Level
Whatever benefits oneself or avoids punishment. This is the level of development of all young children. -
Avoid punishment & Gain Reward
• Conventional Level
Uncritical acceptance of one‟s family, group or society are accepted as final standard of morality. Most
adults do not mature beyond this stage. –
1.Gain Approval & Avoid Disapproval &
2. Duty & Guilt
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• Post-conventional Level
Motivation to do what is morally reasonable for its own sake, rather than solely from ulterior motives,
with also a desire to maintain their moral integrity, self-respect and the respect of other autonomous
individuals. They are „Morally autonomous‟ people. -1. Agreed upon rights & 2. Personal moral
Standards
GILLIGAN’S THEORY
• Pre-conventional Level
This is the same as Kohlberg‟s first level in that the person is preoccupied with self centered reasoning,
caring for the needs and desires of self.
• Conventional
Here the thinking is opposite in that, one is preoccupied with not hurting others and a willingness to
sacrifice one‟s own interests in order to help or nurture others (or retain friendship).
• Post-conventional Level
Achieved through context-oriented reasoning, rather than by applying abstract rules ranked in a hierarchy
of importance. Here the individual becomes able to strike a reasoned balance between caring about other
people and pursuing one‘s own self-interest while exercising one‘s rights.
Differences between the TWO THEORIES
KOHLBERG GILLIGAN
I. Ethics of rules and rights Ethics of care
II. Studies based on well educated, Studies included females and colored white males only, tending male
bias.
III. Application of abstract rules ranked Application of context-oriented reasoning.in the order of
importance
IV. Studies were hypothesized for both Study was conducted on both genders the genders even though the
study was and it was found, men based their conducted mostly on males reasoning on „justice‟ and
women based theirs on „care‟
HEINZ’S DILEMMA
The famous example used by Kohlberg was called ―Heinz‟s dilemma‖. A woman living in Europe would
die of cancer unless she was given an expensive drug. Her husband, Heinz, could not afford it. But the
local pharmacist, who had invented the drug at only one tenth of the sale price refused to sell it to Heinz
who could only raise half the required money from borrowings. Desperation drives Heinz to break into
the pharmacy and steal the drug to save his wife. When respondents were asked whether and why Heinz
should or should not steal a drug to save his wife from a life-threatening illness. The responses of the
individuals were compared with a prototypical response of individuals at particular stages of moral
reasoning. Kohlberg noted that irrespective of the level of the individual the response could be same, but
the reasoning could be different.
For example, if a child reasoning at a preconventional level might say that it is not right to steal because
it is against law and someone might see you. At a „conventional‟ level, an individual might argue that it
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is not right to steal because it is against law and laws are necessary for society to function. At a
„postconventional‟ level, one may argue that stealing is wrong because is against law and it is immoral.
CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY
CONTROVERSY:
• All individuals will not arrive at same verdict during their exercising their moral autonomy.
• Aristotle noted long ago that morality is not as precise and clear-cut as arithmetic.
• Aim of teaching engg ethics is not to get unanimous conformity of outlook by indoctrination,
authoritarian and dogmatic teaching, hypnotism or any other technique but to improve promotion of
tolerance in the exercise of moral autonomy.
CONSENSUS:
The conductor of a music orchestra has authority over the musicians and his authority is respected by
them by consensus as otherwise the music performance will suffer. Hence the authority and autonomy are
compatible. On the other hand, tension arises between the needs for autonomy and the need for
concerns about authority. The difference between the two should be discussed openly to resolve the issue
to the common good.
PROFESSIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM
Engineers normally imagine that they are servants to organizations rather than a public guardian.
Responsibility to the public is essential for a professional.
Who is a professional?
• Obviously a member of a profession.
What is a profession?
„JOB‟ or „OCCUPATION‟ that meets the following criteria from which a person earns his living.
• Knowledge – Exercise of skills, knowledge, judgment and discretion requiring extensive formal criteria.
• Organization - special bodies by members of the profession to set standard codes of ethics,
• Public good-The occupation serves some important public good indicated by a code of ethics.
Who is a professional engineer?
• Has a bachelor‟s degree in engineering from an accredited school
• Performs engineering work
• Is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer
• Acts in a morally responsible way while practicing engineering
Differing views on Professionals
―Only consulting engineers who are basically independent and have freedom from coercion can be called
as professionals.‖ -Robert L.Whitelaw
―Professionals have to meet the expectations of clients and employers. Professional restraints are to be
imposed by only laws and government regulations and not by personal conscience.‖ -Samuel Florman
―Engineers are professionals when they 1) attain standards of achievement in education, job performance
or creativity in engineering and 2) accept the most basic moral responsibilities to the public as well as
employers, clients, colleagues and subordinates.‖ -Mike Martin & Roland Schinzinger
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MOTIVES FOR PROFESSIONALISM
• A desire for interesting and challenging work and the pleasure in the act of changing the world.
• The joy of creative efforts. Where a scientists interest is in discovering new technology, engineers
interest is derived from creatively solving practical problems.
• The engineer shares the scientists job in understanding the laws and riddles of the universe.
• The sheer magnitude of the nature – oceans, rivers, mountains and prairies – leads engineers to build
engineering marvels like ships, bridges, tunnels, etc., which appeal to human passion.
• The pleasure of being in the presence of machines generating a comforting and absorbing sense of a
manageable, controlled and ordered world.
• Strong sense of helping, of directing efforts towards easing the lot of ones fellows.
MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
1. SAVIOR: The representative engineer is a savior who will redeem society from poverty, inefficiency,
waste and the drudgery of manual labour.
2. GUARDIAN: Engineers know, the directions in which and pace at which, technology should develop.
3. BUREAUCRATIC SERVANT: The engineer as the loyal organization person uses special skills to
solve problems.
4. SOCIAL SERVANT: Engineers, in co-operation with management, have the task of receiving society‘s
directives and satisfying society‘s desires.
5. SOCIAL ENABLER AND CATALYST: Engineers play a vital role beyond mere compliance with
orders. They help management and society understand their own needs and to make informed decisions.
6. GAME PLAYER: Engineers are neither servants nor masters of anyone. They play by the economic
game rules that happen to be in effect at a given time.
TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORIES
S.NO TYPES BASED ON
1 Virtue ethics Virtues and vices
2 Utilitarianism Most good for most people
3 Duty ethics Duties to respect persons
4 Rights ethics Human Rights
VIRTUE ETHICS
• ―The unexamined life is not worth living.‖(Socrates, 470-399 B.C.)
• ―The happy life is thought to be virtuous; now a virtuous life requires exertion and does not consist in
amusement.‖ (Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)
The Four Main Virtues
• Prudence (mind): to think about a moral problem clearly and completely
• Temperance (emotions): control attraction to positive emotions
• Fortitude (emotions): control aversion for negative emotions
• Justice (will): choose according to truth and fairness.
Virtue Ethics
• Focuses on the type of person we should strive to be
• Actions which reflect good character traits (virtues) are inherently right
• Actions which reflect bad character traits (vices) are inherently wrong
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• Virtue ethics are tied more to individual behavior than to that of an organization (e.g. business,
government)
ARISTOTLE says that moral virtues are tendencies, acquired through habit formation, to reach a proper
balance between extremes in conduct, emotion, desire and attitude i.e. virtues are tendencies to find the
Golden Mean between the extremes of too much and too little.
Some of the virtues are defined using examples here:
Virtue Too much Too less
(Golden mean between extremes)
Courage Foolhardiness Cowardice
Truthfulness Revealing all in violation of Being secretive or tact confidentiality
lacking in candor
Generosity Wasting one‟s resources Being miserly
Friendliness Being annoyingly effusive Sulky or surly
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
• Being morally responsible as a professional.
• Most basic and comprehensive professional virtue.
• Creation of useful and safe technological products while respecting the autonomy of clients and public,
especially in matters of risk taking. This encompasses a wide variety of the more specific virtues grouped
as follows:
1. SELF DIRECTION VIRTUES:
Fundamental virtues in exercising our moral autonomy and responsibility. e.g. self understanding,
humility, good moral judgment, courage, self discipline, perseverance, commitments, self-respect and
dignity
2. PUBLIC SPIRITED VIRTUES:
Focusing on the good of the clients and public affected by the engineers‟ work by . not directly and
intentionally harming others i.e. „non maleficence‟. Benificence, sense of community, generosity are
other virtues falling in this category.
3. TEAMWORK VIRTUES:
Enables professionals to work successfully with others. E.g. collegiality, cooperativeness, the ability to
communicate, respect for authority, loyalty to employers and leadership qualities.
4. PROFICIENCY VIRTUES:
Mastery of one‟s craft that characterize good engineering practice e.g. competence, diligence, creativity,
self-renewal through continuous education.
MORAL INTEGRITY
Moral integrity is the unity of character on the basis of moral concern, and especially on the basis of
honesty. The unity is consistency among our attitudes, emotions and conduct in relation to justified moral
values.
SELF-RESPECT
• Valuing oneself in morally appropriate ways.
• Integral to finding meaning in one‟s life and work
• A pre-requisite for pursuing other moral ideals and virtues.
• Self-respect is a moral concept of properly valuing oneself but self-esteem is a psychological concept of
positive attitude towards oneself.
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Self-respect takes two forms.
1. Recognition self-respect is properly valuing oneself because of one‘s inherent moral worth, the same
worth that every other human being has.
2. Appraisal self-respect is properly valuing ourselves according to how well we meet moral standards
and our personal ideals.
VARIOUS SENSES OF RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility ascribed by i) virtue, ii) obligations, iii) general moral capacities of people,
iv) liabilities and accountability for actions and v) blameworthiness or praiseworthiness.
1. By virtue: A person is said to be a responsible person when we ascribe a moral virtue to the person. We
expect that the person is regularly concerned to do the right thing, is conscientious and diligent in meeting
obligations. In this sense, professional responsibility is the central virtue of engineers.
2. By obligation: Moral responsibilities can be thought of as obligations or duties to perform morally right
acts.
3. By general moral capacity: When we view a person as a whole rather than one with respect to a
specific area, we are actually thinking about the active capacity of the person for knowing how to act in
morally appropriate ways e.g. the capacity of children grow as they mature and learn.
4. By accountability: Responsibility also means being accountable, answerable or liable to meet particular
obligations. The virtue of professional responsibility Implies a willingness to be accountable for one‘s
conduct.
5. By being blameworthy: When accountability for a wrongdoing is at issue, responsible becomes a
synonym for blameworthy. When right conduct is the issue, the context is praiseworthiness.
CAUSAL AND LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Causal Responsibility: consists simply in being a cause of some event. E.g. lightning as being responsible
for a house catching fire.
Legal Responsibility: consists simply in being a cause for harm that was so unlikely and also
unforeseeable that no moral responsibility is involved.
UTILITARIANISM
• That which produces the maximum benefit for the greatest number of people (e.g. Democracy)
• Tries to achieve a balance between the good and bad consequences of an action
• Tries to maximize the well-being of society and emphasizes what will provide the most benefits to the
largest group of people
• This method is fundamental to many types of engineering analysis, including risk-benefit analysis and
cost-benefit analysis
Drawbacks:
• Sometimes what is best for the community as a whole is bad for certain individuals in the community
• It is often impossible to know in advance which decision will lead to the most good
Organizing Principles to Resolving Ethical Issues
• Utilitarian thinking
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– a standard that promotes those individual actions or rules that produce the greatest total amount of
utility to those affected.
– A code that enjoins engineers to promote the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
– What is utility, though? Happiness?
• Preference utilitarianism
– promote those conditions that allow each individual to pursue happiness as he or she conceives it.
– Two conditions necessary for this: freedom and well-being.
– Practically, for engineers, this advocates cost/benefit analyses.
Problems with Utilitarianism
• Difficult to quantify benefits for ALL those affected.
• ―Greatest good‖ difficult to apply to an all-inclusive population.
• Someone gets ―shafted‖ – approach justifies perpetrating injustice on individuals, i.e., someone gets left
out.
• Three approaches:
1. Cost/benefit – quantifiable approach. Maximize positive utilities (benefits) against negative utilities
(costs).
2. Act utilitarian – ―Will the course of action produce more good than any alternative course of action that
I could take‖?
3. Rule utilitarian – ―Would utility be maximized if everyone did the same thing in the same
circumstances‖? Adoption of commonly accepted rules.
1. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:
• Assess the available options
• Assess the costs and benefits of each option for the entire audience affected
• Make the decision that is likely to result in the greatest benefit relative to cost.
2. ACT-UTILITARIANISM:
(professed by John Stuart Mills)
• Focuses on individual actions, rather than general rules.
• An act is right if it is likely to produce the most good for the most people involved in the particular
situation.
• Rules may be broken whenever doing so will produce the most good in a specific situation.
• Happiness is the only „intrinsic‟ good and all others are „instrumental‟ goods that serve as the means of
happiness.
3. RULE-UTILITARIANISM:
(professed by Richard Brandt)
• This regards moral values as primary.
• We should follow the rules and avoid bribes, even when those acts do not have the best consequences in
a particular situation, because the general practice of following rules and not bribing produce the most
overall good
• Rules should be considered in sets called „moral codes‟. A moral code is justified when followed,
would maximize the public good more than alternative codes would.
DUTY ETHICS (Immanuel Kant’s view)
Contends that certain acts (or duties) should be performed because they are inherently ethical such as:
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• be honest,
• keep promises,
• do not inflict sufferings on other people,
• be fair,
• make reparation when you have been unfair,
• how gratitude for kindness extended by others
• seek to improve own intelligence and character,
• develop one‟s talents,
• don‟t commit suicide.
• Duties, rather than good consequences, is fundamental.
• Individuals who recognize their ethical duties will choose ethically correct moral actions
These duties should meet Kant‟s 3 conditions i.e.
1. It should express respect for persons,
• People deserve respect because they have capacity to be autonomous and for exercising goodwill.
• Goodwill is the conscientious and honest effort to do what is right according to universal principles of
duties.
• Moral motives and intentions play a prominent role in duty ethics rather than utilitarianism.
2. It is an universal principle
• Duties are binding on us only if they are applicable to everyone. They must be universalisable.
3.It expresses command for autonomous moral agents. Duties prescribe certain actions categorically,
without qualifications or conditions attached. Valid principles of duties are Categorical Imperatives. They
contrast with non-moral commands called Hypothetical Imperatives which are conditional.
The above ▬► „RESPECT for PERSONS‟
Drawback of Kant‟s duty ethics: It has failed to be sensitive to how principles of duty can conflict with
each other thereby creating Moral dilemmas.
Rawls Development on Kant’s Duty Ethics
Rawls argues that all rational people would agree to abide by two basic moral principles:
1. Each person is entitled to the most extensive amount of liberty compatible with an equal amount for
others and
2. Differences in social power and economic benefits are justified only when they are likely to benefit
everyone, including members of most disadvantaged groups.
RIGHTS ETHICS (JOHN LOCKE – 1632-1704)
• Everyone has inherent moral rights
• Everyone has rights that arise from EXISTING (i.e. right to Life, maximum individual Liberty, and
human Dignity are Fundamental Rights).
• Other rights arise as a Consequence.
• Duties arise because people have rights, not vice versa.
• Any act that violates an individual‘s moral rights is ethically unacceptable.
• Rights ethics was highly individualistic.
• Rights are primarily entitlements that prevent other people from meddling in one‘s life. These are
referred to as Liberty Rights or Negative Rights that place duties on other people not to interfere with
one‘s life.
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e.g. Individuals do not have rights to life because others have duties not to kill them. Instead, possessing
the right to life is the reason why others ought not to kill them.
Drawbacks
• How do we prioritize the rights of different individuals?
• Rights ethics often promote the rights of individuals at the expense of large groups/society
A.I.Melden‟s version of Rights Ethics
• Human rights are intimately related to communities of people.
• This version is known as POSITIVE WELFARE RIGHTS and is defined as rights to community
benefits for living a minimally decent human life.
EVALUATION OF ETHICAL THEORIES
We are basically not interested in which of the ethical theories is the best. It is believed that there are
areas in which each theory complements others by how they differ.
Procedure for General Evaluation:
1. The theory must be clear and formulated with concepts that are coherent and applicable.
2. It must be internally consistent in that none of its tenets contradicts any other.
3. Neither the theory nor its defense can rely upon false information.
4. It must be sufficiently comprehensive to provide guidance in specific situations of interest to us.
5. It must be compatible with our most carefully considered moral convictions about concrete situations.
SELF-INTEREST AND ETHICAL EGOISM
Psychological Egoism
All of our actions can be reduced to self-interest
• We always do what we most want to do. e.g., a man who helps others has chosen to do so, so he sees
doing it, is in his self-interest
• We do what makes us feel good. e.g., a man who helps others must get pleasure from doing it – hence it
is in his self-interest
The Problem of Counter Examples
What about charity and pity?
These require the egoist to distinguish selfish and unselfish acts from selfish and unselfish motives
• Charity – I enjoy showing my power
• Pity – I worry that it might happen to me
So again, doing these, we act from self-interest
Confusion over self-interest and selfishness
• Not all actions are done from selfishness
• Brushing my teeth (self-interested but not selfish)
Also confusion over self-interest and pleasure
• Not all actions are done from self-interest
• Smoking cigarettes (pleasurable but not self-interested)
• Self-interest = any interest the self has
What do all major Ethical Theories say about this?
All major theories acknowledge the importance of Self Interest.
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• Utilitarians take into account one‘s own good as well as others.
• Duty ethics emphasizes duties to ourselves.
• Right ethicists talk about our rights to pursue our own good.
• Virtue ethicists emphasize the importance of self-respect.
But all these theories also emphasize that the pursuit of self interest must be balanced with our moral
responsibilities to others.
Ethical Egoism
• A different view, which talks of morality as only the pursuit of self interest
• Self interest is a „rational concern‟ requiring consideration of one‘s long-term interests.
E.g., taking bribe may appear to serve one‘s self interest but it does not serve the long-term interest of
self. Hence taking bribe is not acceptable since it would not do any good on a long-term. This was
professed by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Ayn Rand (1905-1982).
CUSTOMS and ETHICAL RELATIVISM
Relativism:
• Distinction between ―morals‖ (―treatment of others‖) and ―mores‖ (―harmless customs‖)
Cultural (Descriptive) Relativism:
• Factual Claims: ―x is considered right in society y at time t‖ and ―is considered wrong in society z at
time t‖
• Empirical Conclusion: Moralities are relative
• This is either true or false (anthropology –a study of mankind , its customs,beliefs, etc.can figure it out)
Normative (Ethical) Relativism:
• Normative Claim: ―What is considered right in society x at time t is right for that society‖
• A particular culture cannot be judged from outside of that culture.
• „Ethical Relativism says that actions are morally right when they are approved by law and custom.
• They are wrong when they violate laws and custom.
• Ethical egoism tries to reduce moral reasons to matters of self interest,
„ethical relativism attempts to reduce moral values to laws, conventions and customs of particular
societies.
Consequences of Normative Relativism
• We cannot say other ―morals‖ are inferior to our own society‘s
• We decide the value of our actions based only on what our particular society thinks
• We should show a lot of tolerance for different customs and outlooks in a society in which we live in. It
means that customs can have moral significance in deciding how we should act. This view is called
„ethical pluralism.
Reasons for Acceptance Of Ethical Relativism
The reasons professed for acceptance of ethical relativism is threefold.
1. Laws seem so tangible and clear-cut. They provide a public way ending seemingly endless disputes
about rights and wrongs. But many times, moral reasons seem to be at variance with laws e.g. apartheid
laws.
2. Moral standards vary dramatically from one culture to another. The only kind of objectivity possible is
limited to a given set of laws in a given society. Acknowledging this relativity of morality encourages the
virtue of tolerance of differences among societies.
3. Moral judgments should be made in relation to factors that from case to case, usually making it
impossible to formulate rules which are simple. Customs and laws are usually morally relevant factors
that should be taken into account.
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RELIGION and DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS
Ethics and Religion:
Moral issues and religious belief are related in several positive ways.
• First, they are shaped over time from the central moral values of major world religions.
• Second, religious views often support moral responsibility by providing additional motivation for being
moral.
• Third, sometimes religions set a higher moral standard than is conventional.
• Societies often benefit from a variety of religions that make prominent particular virtues, inspiring their
members to pursue them beyond what is ordinarily seen as morally obligatory.
Divine Command Ethic:
• This says that an act which is right is commanded by god and the one which is wrong is forbidden by
God.
• The difficulty in this is to know precisely what God‘s commands are and in knowing whether God
exists.
We can view that moral reasons are not reducible to religious matters, although religious belief may
provide an added inspiration for responding to them.
Uses Of Ethical Theories
1. Ethical theories aid in identifying the moral considerations or reasons that constitute a dilemma.
2. They provide a precise sense of what kinds of information are relevant to solving moral development.
3. They sometimes, offer ways to rank the relevant moral considerations in order of importance and
provide a rough guidance in solving moral problems.
4. The theories help us identify the full moral ramifications of alternative courses of action, urging a wide
perspective on the moral implications of the options and providing a systematic framework of comparing
alternatives.
5. The theories augment the precision with which we use moral terms and they provide frame works for
moral reasoning when discussing moral issues with colleagues.
6. By providing frame works for development of moral arguments, the theories strengthen our ability to
reach balanced and insightful judgments. heir engineering problem.
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UNIT III - ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION
To undertake a great work and especially a work of novel type means, carrying out an
experiment. It means taking up a struggle with the forces of nature without the assurance
of emerging as a victor after the first attack.
Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785 - 1836) - Founder of Structural Analysis
ENGINEERING AS EXPERIMENTATION
Experimentation (Preliminary tests or Simulations) plays a vital role in the design of a product or
process. In all stages of converting a new engineering concept into a design like,
 first rough cut design,
 usage of different types of materials and processes,
 detailed design,
 further stages of work design and
 the finished product,
Experiments and tests are conducted to evaluate the product. Modifications are made based on
the outcome of these experiments. he normal design process is thus iterative (modifications
being made on the basis of feedback information acquired from the tests).Even though various
tests and experiments are conducted at various stages, the engineering project as a whole in its
totality can be viewed as an experiment.
SIMILARITIES TO STANDARD EXPERIMENTS
Any project is carried out in partial ignorance due to
 The uncertainties in the abstract model used for the design calculations,
 The uncertainties in the precise characteristics of the materials purchased,
 The uncertainties caused by variations in processing and fabrication of materials and
 The uncertainties about the nature of stresses the finished product will encounter.
Indeed, Engineers success lies in the ability to accomplish tasks with only a partial knowledge of
scientific laws about nature and society. The final outcome of engineering projects, like those of
experiments, is generally uncertain. Very often, possible outcomes are not even known and great
risks may be presented which could never be thought of.
Effective Engineering relies upon knowledge gained about products both before and after they
leave the factory- knowledge needed for improving current products and creating better ones.
That is, ongoing success in engineering depends upon gaining new knowledge.
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LEARNING FROM THE PAST
Engineers should learn not only from their own earlier design and operating results, but also
from other engineers.Engineers repeat the past mistakes of others due to the following reasons.
 Lack of established channels of communication.
 Misplaced pride in not asking for information
 Embarrassment at failure or fear of litigation (legal problems).
 Negligence.
Examples:
1. The Titanic lacked sufficient number of life boats resulting in the death of 1522 out of 2227
(life boat capacity available was only 825), a few decades later Arctic perished due to the
same problem.
2. In June 1966, a section of the Milford Haven Bridge in Wales collapsed during construction.
A bridge of similar design, erected by the same bridge- builder in Melbourne, Australia, also
partially collapsed in the month of October, same year. During this incident 33 people were
killed and many were injured.
3. Malfunctions occurred at nuclear reactors at various locations and the information reports
were with Babcock and Wilcox, the reactor manufacturer. In spite of these, no attention was
paid leading to a pressure relief valve giving rise to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident
on March 28, 1979.
In spite In spite
CONTRASTS WITH STANDARD EXPERIMENTS
1. EXPERIMENTAL CONTROL: In standard experiments, members are in two different
groups. Members of one group receive special experimental treatment. The other group
members, called „control group do not receive special treatment, though they are from the same
environment in all other respects. But this is not true in engineering, since most of the
experiments are not conducted in laboratories. The subjects of experiments are human beings
who are outside the experimenters control. Thus it is not possible to study the effects of changes
in variable on different groups. Hence only historical and retrospective data available about
various target groups has to be used for evaluation. Hence engineering as a social
experimentation seems to be an extended usage of the concept of experimentation.
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2. INFORMED CONSENT: has two elements, knowledge and voluntariness. The subjects
(human beings) should be given all the information needed to make a reasonable decision. Next,
they must get into the experiment without being subjected to force, fraud or deception.
Supplying complete information is neither necessary nor in most cases possible. But all relevant
information needed for making a reasonable decision on whether to participate should be
conveyed. Generally, we all prefer to be the subject of our own experiments rather than those of
somebody else.
Conditions defining Informed or Valid Consent
The consent is given voluntarily
The consent is based on information a rational person would want, together with any other
information requested and presented to them in understandable form.
The consenter was competent to process the information and make rational decisions.
Information has been widely disseminated.
The subjects consent is offered by proxy by a group that collectively represents many subjects
like interests, concerns and exposure to risk.
Engineering experiments are not conducted to gain new knowledge unlike scientific
experiments. Is this distinction necessary?
This distinction is not vital because we are concerned about the manner in which the experiment
is conducted, such as valid consent of human subjects being sought, safety measures taken and
means exist for terminating the experiment at any time and providing all participants a safe exit.
Features of morally responsible engineers in social experimentation
Conscientiousness: A primary obligation to protect the safety of human subjects and respect their
right of consent.
Relevant information: A constant awareness of the experimental nature of any project,
imaginative forecasting of its possible side effects and a reasonable effort to monitor them.
Moral autonomy: Autonomous, personal involvement in all steps of the project.
Accountability: Accepting accountability for the results of the project.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS:
Conscientious moral commitment means sensitivity to the full range of relevant moral values.
Sensitivity to responsibilities that is relevant. Willingness to develop the skill and expend the
effort needed to reach the best balance possible among these considerations. Conscientiousness
means consciousness because mere intent is not sufficient.
Conceiving engineering as social experimentation restores the vision of engineers as guardians of
the public interest in that they are duty bound to guard the welfare and safety of those affected by
engg projects.
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RELEVANT I NFORMATION:
Conscientiousness is blind without relevant factual information. Moral concern involves a
commitment to obtain and assess all available pertinent information. Another dimension to
factual information is the consequences of what one does. While regarding engg as social
experimentation points out the importance of context, it also urges the engineer to view his or her
specialized activities in a project as part of a larger whole having a social impact that may
involve a variety of unintended effects. It may be better to practice „defensive engg (Chauncy
Starr) or „preventive engg (Ruth Davis).
MORAL AUTONOMY
People are morally autonomous when their moral conduct and principles of action are their own.
Moral beliefs and attitudes must be a critical reflection and not a passive adoption of the
particular conventions of ones society, religion or profession. Moral beliefs and attitudes cannot
be agreed to formally and adhered to merely verbally. They must be integrated into the core of
ones personality and should lead to committed action.
It is wrong to think that as an employee when one performs „acts serving companys interests,
one is no longer morally and personally identified with ones actions. Viewing engg as a social
experimentation helps to overcome this flawed thought and restores a sense of autonomous
participation in ones work. As an experimenter, an engineer is exercising the specialized training
that forms the core of ones identity as a professional.
A social experiment that can result in unknown consequences should help inspire a critical and
questioning attitude about the adequacy of current economic and safety standards. In turn, this
leads to better personal involvement with work.
ACCOUNTABILITY:
Responsible people accept moral responsibility for their actions. Accountability is the
willingness to submit ones actions to moral scrutiny and be open and responsive to the
assessment of others. It should be understood as being culpable and blameworthy for misdeeds.
Submission to an employers authority creates in many people a narrow sense of accountability
for the consequences of their action. This is because of
i) Only a small contribution is made by one individual, when large scale engineering work is
fragmented. The final product which is far away from ones immediate workplace, does not
give a proper understanding of the consequences of ones action.
ii) Due to the fragmentation of work, a vast diffusion of accountability takes place. The area
of personal accountability is delimited to the portion of work being carried out by one.
iii) The pressure to move on to another new project does not allow one to complete the
observations long enough. This makes people accountable only for meeting schedules and
not for the consequences of action.
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iv) To avoid getting into legal issues, engineers tend to concentrate more on legal liabilities
than the containment of the potential risks involved in their area of work.
Viewing engineering as a social experimentation makes one overcome these difficulties and see
the problem in whole rather than as part.
ENGINEERING CODES OF ETHICS
Engineering Codes of Ethics have evolved over time
EARLY CODES
•Codes of personal behavior
•Codes for honesty in business dealings and fair business practices
•Employee/employer relations
NEWER CODES
 Emphasize commitments to safety, public health and environmental protection
 Express the rights, duties and obligations of members of the Profession
 Do not express new ethical principles, but coherently restate existing standards of responsible
engineering practice
 Create an environment within the Profession where ethical behavior is the norm
 Not legally binding; an engineer cannot be arrested for violating an ethical code (but may be
expelled from or censured by the engineering society)
Are Engineering Codes Needed? NO:
–Engineers are capable of fending for themselves
–Common law is available to defend in ethical disputes
–Offended public can seek redress through courts
Are Engineering Codes Needed? YES:
–Engineers have few or no resources to defend themselves in an ethical dispute
–Common law is available in reality only with great difficulty
–Conversely, the public has similar problems in seeking redress through legal channels
Objections to Existing Engineering Codes of Ethics:
–Relatively few engineers are members of engineering societies.
–Non-members dont necessarily follow the ethical codes.
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–Many engineers either dont know that the codes exist, or have not read them.
Which ethical codes apply?
–Depending upon your discipline and organizational affiliations, you may be bound by one, two
or even more ethical codes:
•Discipline related (ASME, IEEE, ASCE, IIE etc.)
•National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
• Employee codes (corporation, university, etc.)
•Union Codes
Engineering Ethics
Our engineering ethics codes are derived from a Western cultural tradition
–Ancient Greeks
–Judeo-Christian religions
–Philosophers and thinkers (e.g. Locke, Kant, Mills)
The Hammurabi Code
If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his work sound, and the house he has
built has fallen down and so caused the death of the householder, that builder shall be put to
death. If it causes the death of the householders son, they shall put the builders son to death….
(Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 1758 B.C.)
Code of Ethics for Engineers
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)
The Fundamental Principles
Engineers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of the engineering
profession by:
 using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of the human race;
 being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the public, their employers, and
clients;
 striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession.
 supporting the professional and technical societies of their discipline.
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The Fundamental Cannons
Engineers shall
hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the performance of their
professional duties;
 perform service only in areas of their competence;
 issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner;
 act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and
shall avoid conflicts of interest;
 build their professional reputations on the merits of their services and shall not compete
unfairly with others
 act in such manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity and dignity of the
profession;
 continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide
opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their
supervision.
CODES OF ETHICS - ROLES OR FUNCTIONS
Inspiration and Guidance:
 Codes provide positive stimulus for ethical conduct and helpful guidance by using
positive language.
 Codes should be brief to be effective and hence such codes offer only general guidance.
 Supplementary statements or guidelines to give specific directions are added by a number
of societies or professional bodies.
2. Support: Codes give positive support to those seeking to act ethically. An engineer under
pressure to act unethically can use one of the publicly proclaimed codes to get support for his
stand on specific moral issues. Codes also serve as legal support for engineers.
3.Deterrence and discipline:
Codes can be used as a basis for conducting investigations on unethical conduct. They also
provide a deterrent for engineers to act immorally. Engineers who are punished by professional
societies for proven unethical behaviour by revoking the rights to practice as engineers are also
subjected to public ridicule and loss of respect from colleagues and local community. This helps
to produce ethical conduct even though this can be viewed as a negative way of motivation.
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4.Education and mutual understanding:
The codes can be used for discussion and reflection on moral issues and thereby improve the
understanding of moral responsibilities among all engineers, clients, public and good
organizations.
5. Contributing to the profession’s public image: Codes present the engineering profession as
an ethically committed society in the eyes of the public thus enhancing their image.
6. Protecting status quo:Codes establish ethical conventions, which can help promote an agreed
upon minimum level of ethical conduct.
7. Promoting business interests:Codes can place unwarranted restraints of commerce on
business dealings.
Relative importance of the various functions of codes of ethics
 The perspective of engg as social experimentation clearly emphasizes the primary role
„supportive function of the codes of ethics. This is so because, only this support enables
engineers, speak out clearly and openly their views, to those affected by engg projects.
 The, „inspiration and guidance and „educative functions are also important in promoting
mutual understanding and in motivating engineers to act with higher moral standards.
 The „disciplinary function in engg codes is of secondary importance. Those with
unethical conduct when exposed are subject to law. Developing elaborate paralegal
procedures within professional societies duplicates a function which can be done better
by legal system. At best, codes should try to discipline engineers in areas which are not
covered by law.
 The worst abuse of codes has been to restrict honest moral effort in the name of
„preserving professions public image and „protecting status quo. The best way to
increase trust is by encouraging and aiding engineers to speak freely and responsibly
about public safety.
Limitations of Codes of Ethics
Codes are restricted to general and vague wording. They cannot be straightaway applied to all
situations. It is impossible to foresee the full range of moral problems that can arise in a c
omplex profession like engg. It is easy for different clauses of codes to come into conflict with
each other. Usually codes provide no guidance as to which clause should have priority in those
cases, creating moral dilemmas. They cannot serve as the final moral authority for professional
conduct. If the code of a professional society is taken as the last word, it means that we are
getting into a particular set of conventions i.e. ethical conventionalism.
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4. Andrew Oldenquist and Edward Slowter pointed out how the existence of separate codes for
different professional societies can give members the feeling that ethical conduct is more relative
than it is and that it can convey to the public the view that none is „really right‟. The current
codes are by no means perfect but are definitely steps in the right direction.
The problems of law in engineering
1. The greatest problem of law in engg is of „minimal compliance. Engineers and employers can
search for loop holes in the law to barely keep to its letter while violating its spirit. Engineers
will tend to refer to standard readymade specifications rather than come up with innovative
ideas. Minimal compliance led to the tragedy of the „Titanic.
2. Continually updating laws and regulations may be counter-productive and will make law
always lag behind technology. This also overburdens the rules and regulators.
Many laws are „non-laws i.e. laws without enforceable sanctions. These merely serve as
window dressing, frequently gives a false sense of security to the public. The opponents of the
law may burden it intentionally with many unreasonable provisions that a repeal will not be far
off. ighly powerful organizations, like the government can violate the laws when they think they
can get away with it by inviting would be challengers, to face them in lengthy and costly court
proceedings. This also creates frustration with the law.
Role of law in engineering
It is wrong to write off rule-making and rule following as futile. Good laws, effectively
enforced, clearly produce benefits. Reasonable minimum standards are ensured of professional
conduct. It also provides a self-interested motive for most people and corporations to comply.
They also serve as powerful support and defense for those who wish to act ethically in situations
where ethical conduct might not be welcome.
Viewing engineering as social experimentation provides engineers with a better perspective on
laws and regulations. Precise rules and enforceable sanctions are appropriate in cases of ethical
misconduct that involve violations of well established and regularly reexamined procedures that
have as their purpose the safety of public. In areas of experimentation, rules must not attempt to
cover all possible outcomes of an experiment, nor must they force the engineer to adopt a rigidly
specified course of action. Here the regulations should be broad based guidelines but should hold
the engineer accountable for his or her decisions.
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UNIT IV – SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS
SAFETY AND RISK
Imagine you are a fresh graduate. You get a job as an engineer in a large atomic power plant.
Would you take it or not? Under what conditions would you take it? Under what conditions
would you not? Why?
People as Consumers:
Active Consumers: directly involve themselves e.g., mowing the lawn, washing clothes or
toasting bread.
Passive Consumers: have less choice and less control e.g., Water, Electricity, Petrol,Bystanders:
e.g., exposed to Pollution from unknown sources
What is safe to entrepreneurs may not be so to engineers . e.g. Pilots : ―Indian airports are not
safe : low vision in fog‖
What is safe to engineers may not be so to public e.g. Top loading washing machine
Typically several groups of people are involved in safety matters but have their own interests at
stake. Each group may differ in what is safe and what is not.
Concept of Safety
―A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for‖ – John A. Shedd
A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable - William W. Lawrence
We buy an ill-designed Iron box in a sale-> Underestimating risk
We judge fluoride in water can kill lots of people -> Overestimating risk
We hire a taxi, without thinking about its safety -> Not estimating risk
How does a judge pass a judgement on safety in these 3 cases?
….So, this definition won't do in real life.
Then, what is acceptable also depends upon the individual or groups value judgment. Hence a
better, working definition of concept of safety could be,
―A thing is safe (to a certain degree) with respect to a given person or group at a given time if,
were they fully aware of its risks and expressing their most settled values, they would judge
those risks to be acceptable (to that certain degree).‖ - Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger
A thing is NOT SAFE if it exposes us to unacceptable danger or hazard
RISK is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.
a. We take a risk when we undertake something or use a product that is not safe. Risk in
technology could include dangers of
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o bodily harm,
o economic loss, or
o environmental degradation.
Some may assume that ―safety‖ is a concrete concept, while ―risk‖ is a vague, hypothetical
concept .In fact, its the other way around Risks always exist. But true safety never exists, except
in hypothetical situations So, risk is reality, safety is fantasy
What degree of risk is acceptable?
Safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or unacceptable, if they knew the
risks, and are basing their judgments on their most settled value perspective. So, to this extent, it
is objective. Perspectives differ. To this extent, it is subjective. So, Safety is 'acceptable risk'.
Acceptable Risk
A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer (or not) apprehensive about it.
Apprehension (i.e. anxiety) depends largely on factors such as
 whether the risk is assumed voluntarily.
 how the probabilities of harm (or benefit) is perceived.
 job-related or other pressures that causes people to be aware of or to overlook risks.
 whether the defects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable or close at
hand .
 whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.
Voluntary risk and Control
A person is said to take „VOLUNTARY RISK -when he is subjected to risk by either his own
actions or action taken by others and -volunteers to take that risk without any apprehension.
-For example, John and Ann Smith enjoy riding motorcycles over rough ground for amus ement.
They take voluntary risk, part of being engaged in such a potentially dangerous sport.
Connected to this notion of voluntarism is the matter of Control. In the example cited, the Smiths
are aware of the high probability of accident figures in such a sport, but they display
characteristically unrealistic confidence of most people when they believe the dangers to be
under their control. In terms of engineering as social experimentation, people are more willing to
be the subjects of their own experiments than of someone else (whether social experiment or
not).Chauncey Starr informs us that individuals are more ready to assume voluntary risks than
involuntary risks, even when voluntary risks are 1000 times more likely to produce a fatality than
the involuntary ones.
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A DISASTER = A seriously disruptive event + A state of unpreparedness.
 e.g., Titanic collision with an iceberg, at night: Emergency
 Fewer lifeboats, inadequate training and warnings of icebergs
unheeded -> Disaster.
Effect of information on risk assessments
The manner in which information necessary for decision making is presented can greatly
influence how risks are perceived. Consider this example:
In a particular case of disaster management, the only options available are provided in 2 different
ways to the public for one to be chosen (where lives of 600 people are at stake).
Alternate 1
If program A is followed, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is followed, 1/3 probability is
600 people will be saved and 2/3 probability that nobody will be saved.
Response
72% of the target group chose option A and 28% option B
Alternate 2
If program A is followed, 400 people will die. If Program B is followed, 1/3 probability is that
nobody will die and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die.
Response
This time only 22% of the target group chose option A and 78% option B
Conclusion:
The option perceived as yielding firm gain will tend to be preferred over those from which gains
are perceived as risky or only probable. Option emphasizing firm losses will tend to be avoided
in favour of those whose chances of success are perceived as probable.
Secondary Costs of Products
Cost of products is High, if designed unsafely
 Returns and Warranty Expenses
 Loss of Customer Goodwill
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 Cost of litigation
 Loss of Customers due to injuries in using it
 Cost of rework, lost time in attending to design problems
Manufacturer‘s understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:
 To help reduce secondary costs
 To know the possible risk for purposes of pricing, disclaimers, legal terms and conditions,
etc.
 To know the cost of reducing the risks
 To take a decision before finalizing the design.
Buyers understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:
 To judge whether he/she wants to take the risks
 To judge whether the „risk vs. costs justifies taking the risk.
JOB RELATED RISKS
Many workers are taking risks in their jobs in their stride like being exposed to asbestos.
Exposure to risks on a job is in one sense of voluntary nature since one can always refuse to
submit to the work or may have control over how the job is done. But generally workers have no
choice other than what they are told to do since they want to stick to the only job available to
them. But they are not generally informed about the exposure to toxic substances and other
dangers which are not readily seen, smelt, heard or otherwise sensed. Occupational health and
safety regulations and unions can have a better say in correcting these situations but still things
are far below expected safety standards. Engineers while designing work stations must take into
account the casual attitude of workers on safety (esp. when they are paid on piece rate).
Problems faced by engineers about public concept of safety
The optimistic attitude that things that are familiar, that have not caused harm before and over
which we have some control present no risks. The serious shock people feel when an accident
kills or maims people in large numbers or harms those we know, even though statistically
speaking such accidents might occur infrequently.
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‘Safety in a commodity comes with a price’ – Explain.
Absolute safety is never possible to attain and safety can be improved in an engineering product
only with an increase in cost. On the other hand, unsafe products incur secondary costs to the
producer beyond the primary (production) costs, like warranty costs loss of goodwill, loss of
customers, litigation costs, downtime costs in manufacturing, etc. Figure indicates that P-
Primary costs are high for a highly safe (low risk) product and S- Secondary costs are high for a
highly risky (low safe) product. If we draw a curve T=P+S as shown, there is a point at which
costs are minimum below which the cost cannot be reduced. If the risk at Minimum Total Cost
Point is not acceptable, then the producer has to choose a lower acceptable risk value in which
case the total cost will be higher than M and the product designed accordingly. It should now be
clear that „safety comes with a price only
Knowledge of risk for better safety
Robert Stephenson writes that all the accidents, the harms caused and the means used to repair
the damage should be recorded for the benefit of the younger Members of Profession.
A faithful account of those accidents and the damage containment was really more valuable than
the description of successful work. Hence it is imperative that knowledge of risks will definitely
help to attain better safety. But it should be borne in mind, that still gaps remain, because
i)there are some industries where information is not freely shared and
ii)there are always new applications of old technology that render the available information less
useful.
Uncertainties encountered in design process
A decision on maximising profit or maximising the return on investment.
Uncertainties about applications like dynamic loading instead of static loading, vibrations, wind
speeds.
Uncertainties regarding materials and skills required in the manufacturing.
Changing economic realities.
Unfamiliar environmental conditions like very low temperature.
The available standard data on items like steel, resistors, insulators, optical glass, etc are based
on statistical averages only.
Due to the inherent nature of processes, all compts have a tolerance in design leading to the
probability statistics by which assemblies capability is assessed.
Testing strategies for safety
Some commonly used testing methods:
Using the past experience in checking the design and performance.
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Prototype testing - Here the one product tested may not be representative of the population
of products.

Tests simulated under approximately actual conditions to know the 
performance flaws
on safety.

Routine quality assurance tests on production runs.
The above testing procedures are not always carried out properly. Hence we cannot trust the
testing procedures uncritically. Some tests are also destructive and obviously it is impossible to
do destructive testing and improve safety. In such cases, a simulation that traces hypothetical
risky outcomes could be applied.
Scenario Analysis (Event -> Consequences)
Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (Failure modes of each component)
Fault Tree Analysis (System Failure -> Possible Causes at component level)
What if there is a combination of factors?
All Analysis pre-suppose a thorough understanding of the physical system
Failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) :
This approach systematically examines the failure modes of each component, without however,
focusing on relationships among the elements of a complex system.
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) :
A system failure is proposed and then events are traced back to possible causes at the component
level. The reverse of the fault-tree analysis is „event – tree analysis. This method most
effectively illustrates the disciplined approach required to capture as much as possible of
everything that affects proper functioning and safety of a complex system.
Risk Benefit Analysis
Ethical Implications
 When is someone entitled to impose a risk on another in view of a supposed benefit to
others?
 Consider the worst case scenarios of persons exposed to maximum risks while they
are reaping only minimum benefits. Are their rights violated?
 Are they provided safer alternatives?
 Engineers should keep in mind that risks to known persons are perceived differently
from statistical risks
 Engineers may have no control over grievance redressal.
Conceptual difficulties in Risk-Benefit Analysis
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Both risks and benefits lie in future Heavy discounting of future because the very low present
values of cost/benefits do not give a true picture of future sufferings. Both have related
uncertainties but difficult to arrive at expected values What if benefits accrue to one party and
risks to another? Can we express risks & benefits in a common set of units? e.g. Risks can be
expressed in one set of units (deaths on the highway) and benefits in another (speed of travel)?
Many projects, which are highly beneficial to the public, have to be safe also.
Hence these projects can be justified using RISK-BENEFIT analysis. In these studies, one
should find out
W hat are the risks involved?
W hat are the benefits that would accrue?
W hen would benefits be derived and when risks have to be faced?
W ho are the ones to be benefited and who are the ones subjected to risk-are they the same set of
people or different.
The issue here is not, say, cost-effective design but it is only cost of risk taking Vs benefit
analysis. Engineers should first recommend the project feasibility based on risk-benefit analysis
and once it is justified, then they may get into cost-effectiveness without increasing the risk
visualized. In all this, engineers should ask themselves this ethical question: „Under what
conditions, is someone in society entitled to impose a risk on someone else on behalf of a
supposed benefit to others.
Difficulties in assessing Personal Risks
Individuals are ready to assume voluntary risks than involuntary risks. The difficulty here is
generally in assessing personal risks which are involuntary. The problem of quantification of risk
raises innumerable problems. For example, how to assign a rupee value to ones life. There is no
over the counter trade in lives. Even for a sale, it has to be clear under what conditions the sale is
to take place. If one buys a kg of rice it matters whether it is just one additional purchase one
makes regularly or it is the first rice purchase after quite sometime. Even when compensations
are made to people exposed to involuntary risk, the basis on which it is made or even the
intensity of risk could be different for different people. As of now, the one suggestion could be to
employ an open procedure, overseen by trained arbiters, in each case, where risk to individuals is
to be studied and remedied.
Public Risk and Public Acceptance
Risks and benefits to public are more easily determined than to individuals
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)- proposed a value for life based on:
loss of future income
other costs associated with the accident
estimate of quantifiable losses in social welfare resulting from a fatality
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NOT a proper basis for determining the optimal expenditure allocated to saving lives
Accounting publicly for benefits and risks
Engineers should account publicly for benefits and risks in the following manner:
 Engineers must remain as objective as humanly possible in their investigations and
conclusions.
 They must also state openly any personal biases that they may have about the project
being investigated.
 Engineers, even if they are acknowledged experts, may not have complete knowledge of
the issues at hand.
 They should, if necessary, admit their lack of knowledge, in any particular area publicly.
 A willingness to admit uncertainty and also to reveal methodology and sources
particularly when numerical data is presented.
 The way statistical information is presented can create misconceptions in the public
mind. Hence it should be presented in a way to improve realistic interpretations.
 They must consider the views of the parties affected by the project under study before
coming to conclusions.
 The type of action taken should be morally evaluated regardless of its consequences. If it
is wrong to violate certain rights, then figuring out the benefit of the consequences of
doing so is irrelevant.
Difficulties in establishing Safeguards
Incomplete knowledge of the engineering subject
Refusal to face hard questions caused by lack of knowledge
False sense of security e.g. Nuclear waste disposal problem
Caution in stating probabilities of rare events
Varying understanding of risk based on presentation of facts
Risk assessments based on incorrect/unacceptable assumptions/data
Only a few persons/groups participate in the exercise Some of the ways by which engineers may
try to reduce risks.
 In all the areas of works, engineers should give top priority for product safety.
 They should believe that accidents are caused by dangerous conditions that can be
corrected. Negligence and operator errors are not the principal causes of accidents.
 If a product is made safe, the initial costs need not be high if safety is built into a product
from the beginning. It is the design changes done at a later date that are costly. Even then
life cycle costs can be made lower for the redesigned or retrofitted product (for safety).
 If safety is not built into the original design, people can be hurt during testing stage itself.
 They should get out of the thinking that warnings about hazards are adequate and that
insurance coverage is cheaper than planning for safety.
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 All it takes to make a product safe is to have different perspective on the design problem
with emphasis on safety.
Examples of Improved Safety
Magnetic door catch introduced on refrigerators
Prevent death by asphyxiation of children accidentally trapped inside
The catch now permits the door to opened from inside easily
Cheaper than older types of latches
Dead-man Handle for Drivers in trains
Semaphore signaling
Volks wagen's car safety belt -Attachment on the door so that belt automatically goes in place on
entry
Liability
Examine what you want before you buy If he is negligent, he suffers the bad bargain.
Law will not aid those who are negligent „Privity of Contract: User, if he is not a party to the
contract, has no rights for any claim ( user buys from the retailer and not from the manufacturer).
Gradually, Manufacturer was made liable for injuries resulting from negligence in the
design/manufacture. The new law: concept of Strict Liability was established in the case „Green
man vs. Yuba Power Products in California.
I f the product sold is defective, the manufacturer
is liable for any harm that results to users
Implications to Engineers:
Engineers must weigh chances of defect causing injury against cost of minimizing defects

Minimal compliance is insufficient
–adhering to accepted practices &
standards not enough

Standards are
mere checklists
- use them creatively and judgmentally
Engineers can be sued personally even when acting according to guidelines set by employers
e.g. One county highway engineer was sued for failure to repair roads-- had to pay $2 million
Some Cos. protect their engineers and allow themselves to be sued for such money damages
Independent engineers can write liability limits into their contracts Good knowledge of liability
is necessary for engineers
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‘SAFE EXIT’
It is almost impossible to build a completely safe product or one that will never fail. When there
is a failure of the product SAFE EXIT should be provided. Safe exit is to assure that
i)when a product fails, it will fail safely,
ii)that the product can be abandoned safely and
iii) that the user can safely escape the product.
More than the questions of who will build, install, maintain and pay for a safe exit, the most
important question is who will recognize the need for a safe exit. This responsibility should be
an integral part of the experimental procedure.
Some examples of providing „SAFE EXIT:
Ships need lifeboats with sufficient spaces for all passengers and crew members.
Buildings need usable fire escapes
Operation of nuclear power plants calls for realistic means of evacuating nearby communities
Provisions are needed for safe disposal of dangerous materials and products.
Colleagiality & Its Elements
„Collegiality is a kind of connectedness grounded in respect for professional expertise and in a
commitment to the goals and values of the profession and as such, collegiality includes a
disposition to support and co-operate with ones colleagues.- Craig Ihara
The central elements of collegiality are respect, commitment, connectedness and co-operation.
Respect: Acknowledge the worth of other engineers engaged in producing socially useful and
safe products.
Commitment: Share a devotion to the moral ideals inherent in the practice of engineering.
Connectedness: Aware of being part of a co-operative undertaking created by shared
commitments and expertise.
Collegiality, like most virtues, can be misused and distorted.
It should not be reduced to „group interest but should be a shared devotion for public good.
It is not defaming colleagues, but it does not close the eyes to unethical practices of the co-
professionals, either.
Classifications of Loyalty
Agency-Loyalty
Fulfill ones contractual duties to an employer. Duties are particular tasks for which one is paid
Co-operating with colleagues
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Following legitimate authority within the organization.
Identification-Loyalty:
It has to do with attitudes, emotions and a sense of personal identity.
Seeks to meet ones moral duties with personal attachment and affirmation.
It is against detesting their employers and companies, and do work
reluctantly and horribly (this is construed as disloyalty)This means
Avoid conflicts of interest,
Inform employers of any possible conflicts of interest,
Protect confidential information,
Be honest in making estimates,
Admit ones errors, etc.
Loyalty - Obligation of Engineers
Agency-Loyalty
Engineers are hired to do their duties. Hence obligated to employers within proper limits
Identification-Loyalty
Obligatory on two conditions .
When some important goals are met by and through a group in which the engineers participate
When employees are treated fairly, receiving the share of benefits and burdens. But clearly,
identification-loyalty is a virtue and not strictly an obligation.
Relationship - Professionalism and Loyalty
Acting on professional commitments to the public is more effective to serve a company than just
following company orders.
Loyalty to employers may not mean obeying ones immediate supervisor.
Professional obligations to both an employer and to the public might strengthen rather than
contradict each other.
Need for Authority Authority is needed since
Allowing everyone to exercise uncontrolled individual discretion creates chaos (confusion).
Clear lines of authority identifies areas of personal responsibility and accountability.
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Institutional Authority and Expert Authority
Institutional authority
The institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on the resources of the
institution.
It is acquired, exercised and defined within institutions.
It is given to individuals to perform their institutional duties assigned within the organisation.
There is not always a perfect match between the authority granted and the qualifications needed
to exercise it.
Expert authority
The possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to perform some task or to give sound
advice.Engineers may have expert authority but their institutional authority, may only be, to
provide management with analysis of possible ways to perform a technical task, after which they
are restricted to following managements directive about which option to pursue. In large
companies, engineers, advisors and consultants in staff function carry expert authority, while
institutional authority is vested only with line managers.
Authority Vs Power
Ineffective persons, even if vested with authority by their institution, may not be able to summon
the power their position allows them to exercise. On the other hand, people who are effective
may be able to wield greater power that goes beyond the authority attached to the positions they
hold. Highly respected engineers of proven integrity belong to this class.
Authority - Morally justified Observations on authority.
An employer who has institutional authority may direct engineers to do something that is not
morally justified.
Engineers may feel that they have an institutional duty to obey a directive that is morally
unjustified, but their moral duty, all things considered, is not to obey.
To decide whether a specific act of exercising institutional authority is morally justified, we need
to know whether the institutional goals are themselves morally permissible or desirable and
whether that act violates basic moral duties.
‘Zone Of Acceptance’ of Authority
A subordinate is said to accept authority whenever he permits his behaviour to be guided by the
decision of a superior, without independently examining the merits of that decision- Herbert
Simon .Simon notes that all employees tend to have a „zone of acceptance in which they are
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willing to accept their employers authority. Within that zone, an individual, relaxing his own
critical faculties, permits the decision of the employer to guide him. Employees generally do not
make an issue of questionable incidents on morality, out of a sense of responsibility to give their
employer leeway within which to operate and often not to risk their jobs. The problem increases
when employees slowly expand the boundaries of tolerance and rationalize it. his only shows
that engineers should never stop critically reviewing the employers directives especially on
moral issues.
‘Faithful Agent Argument’
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code states,
―The engineer will act in professional matters for client, or employer as a faithful agent or
trustee. He will not actively participate in strikes, picket lines or other coercive action ‖meaning
that when one is a faithful trustee of one‟s employer he cannot actively participate in any
collective forcible action.
Board of Ethical Review argued that engineers have a higher standard than self interest and that
their ethical duty is to act for their employer as a faithful agent or trustee. Collective bargaining
is inconsistent with loyalty to employers because it is against the desires of the employer uses
force or coercion against the employer and involves collective and organized opposition. But
every instance of such conduct need not be unethical.
An example:
Three engineers sincerely feel that they are underpaid. After their representations to their bosses
are in vain, they threaten their employer, politely, that they would seek employment elsewhere.
Here, even though, they act against the desires of their employer and have acted collectively,
they have not acted unethically or violated their duty.
Conclusion: „Faithful agency only concerns with performing ones duty but does not mean that
safety, salary and other economical benefits cannot be negotiated from a position of strength.
Employees duty to employer does not mean unlimited sacrifice of self-interest.
„Public Service Argument- Collective bargaining.
Public Service Argument is an argument against collective bargaining. The paramount duty of
engineers is to serve the public. Unions, by definition, promote the interests of their members
and whenever there is a clash of interests, the interest of the general public is ignored by them.
Though the argument is a valid one, it looks at the worst possible scenarios with unions and
decides that engineering unions act only irresponsibly. A body of engineers can promote
engineers‟ interest within limits set by professional concern for the public good.
Benefits of Collective Bargaining.
Unions have created healthy salaries and high standard of living of employees.
They give a sense of participation in company decision making.
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They are a good balance to the power of employers to fire employees at will.
They provide an effective grievance redressal procedure for employee complaints.
Harms Caused by Collective Bargaining.
Unions are devastating the economy of a country, being a main source of inflation
With unions, there is no congenial (friendly), cooperative decision making.
Unions does not promote quality performance by making job promotion and retention based on
seniority.
They encourage unrest and strained relations between employees and employers.
‘Confidentiality or confidential information’
Information considered desirable to be kept secret.Any information that the employer or client
would like to have kept secret in order to compete effectively against business rivals This
information includes how business is run , its products and suppliers , which directly affects the
ability of the company to compete in the market place . Helps the competitor to gain advantage
or catch up
Privileged information, Proprietary information and Patents.
Privileged information:
Information available only on the basis of special privilege such as granted to an employee
working on a special assignment.
Proprietary information:
Information that a company owns or is the proprietor of. This is primarily used in legal sense.
Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any type of information that has not
become public and which an employer has taken steps to keep secret.
Patents:
Differ from trade secrets. Legally protect specific products from being manufactured and sold by
competitors without the express permission of the patent holder. They have the drawback of
being public and competitors may easily work around them by creating alternate designs.
Obligation of Confidentiality
Based on ordinary moral considerations:
I.Respect for autonomy: Recognizing the legitimate control over private information (individuals
or corporations). This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect their self-interest.
2.Respect for Promise:
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Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to divulge certain information
considered sensitive by the employer
3.Regard for public well being:
Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not reveal information, the patient will
have the trust to confide in him. Similarly only when companies maintain some degree of
confidentiality concerning their products, the benefits of competitiveness within a free market are
promoted.
Based on Major Ethical Theories:
oAll theories profess that employers have moral and institutional rights to decide what
information about their organization should be released publicly.
oThey acquire these rights as part of their responsibility to protect the interest of the
organization.
oAll the theories , rights ethics, duty ethics and utilitarianism justify this confidentiality
but in different ways.
Effect of Change of Job on Confidentiality
Employees are obliged to protect confidential information regarding former employment, after a
change of job. The confidentiality trust between employer and employee continues beyond the
period of employment. But, the employee cannot be forced not to seek a change of job. The
employers right to keep the trade secrets confidential by a former employee should be accepted
at the same time, the employees right to seek career advancement cannot also be denied.
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest arises when two conditions are met:
1. The professional is in a relationship or a role that requires exercising good judgment on
behalf of the interests of an employer or client and
2. The professional has some additional or side interest that could threaten good judgement
in serving the interests of the employee or client . e.g. When an engineer is paid based on a
percentage of the cost of the design and there is no incentive for him to cut costs – the
distrust caused by this situation compromises the engineers ability to cut costs and calls
into question his judgement.
„An act of gift and „An act of bribe
„A gift is a bribe if you cant eat, drink or smoke it in a day.
If you think that your offer of acceptance of a particular gift would have grave or merely
embarrassing consequences for your company if made public, then the gift should be considered
a bribe. „Bribe can be said to be a substantial amount of money or goods offered beyond a stated
business contract with the aim of winning an advantage in gaining or keeping the contract. Here
„substantial means that which is sufficient to distort the judgment of a typical person.
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Conflict of Interest created by Interest in other companies
When one works actually for the competitor or subcontractor as an employee or consultant.
Having partial ownership or substantial stock holdings in the competitors business.
It may not arise by merely having a spouse working for sub-contractor to ones company, but it
will arise if ones job also includes granting contracts to that subcontractor. Tempting customers
away from their current employer, while still working for them to form their own competing
business. Moonlighting usually creates conflicts when working for competitors,suppliers or
customers but does not conflict when working for others without affecting the present employers
business. „Moonlighting means working in ones spare time for another employer.
Conflicts of Interest created by Insider information
Using inside information to set-up a business opportunity for oneself or family or friends. Buying
stock in the company for which one works is not objectionable but it should be based on the
same information available to the public. The use of any company secrets by employee to secure
a personal gain threatens the interest of the company.
Avoiding Conflicts Of Interests
Taking guidance from Company Policy In the absence of such a policy taking a second opinion
from a coworker or manager. This gives an impression that there no intension on the part of the
engineer to hide anything. In the absence of either of these options, to examine ones own motives
and use the ethical problem solving techniques. One can look carefully into the professional
codes of ethics which uniformly forbid conflicts of interest. Some of these codes have very
explicit statements that can help determine whether or not the situation constitutes conflict of
interest.
Types Of Crime
Domestic crime
Non- accidental crime committed by the members of the family.
Professional Crime
When crime is pursued as a profession or day to day occupation
Blue collar crime (or) Street crime
Crime against person , property (Theft ,assault on a person)
Victimless crime
Person who commits the crime is the victim of the crime
E.g. Drug addiction
Hate crime
crime done under the banner of religion , community , linguistics
Occupational Crime
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Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through ones lawful employment.
It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work activities.
When committed by office workers or professionals, occupational crime is called „white collar
crime.
People C ommitting Occupational Crimes
Usually have high standard of education From a non-criminal family background
Middle class male around 27 years of age (70% of the time) with no previous historyNo
involvement in drug or alcohol abuseT hose who had troublesome life experience in the
childhood (Blum)People without firm principles (Spencer)Firms with dec lining profitability
(Coleman, 1994)Firms in highly regulated areas and volatile market -pharmaceutical, petroleum
industry.(Albanese, 1995)
Price Fixing
An act was passed, which forbade (prevented) companies from jointly setting prices in ways that
restrain free competition and trade. Unfortunately, many senior people, well respected and
positioned were of the opinion that „price fixing was good for their organizations and the public.
Employees Endangering Lives of Employees
Employers indulge in exposing their employees to safety hazards. They escape criminal action
against them, by paying nominal compensations even if their crimes are proved in court. And
even this happens only when the victim sues company for damages under civil law.
Engineers’ Moral Rights
Engineers‟ moral rights fall into categories of human, employee, contractual and professional
rights.
Professional rights:
The right to form and express ones professional judgment freely The right to refuse to carry out
illegal and unethical activity
The right to talk publicly about ones work within bounds set by confidentiality obligation
The right to engage in the activities of professional societies
The right to protect the clients and the public from the dangers that might arise from ones work
The right to professional recognition of one‟s services.
Right of Professional Conscience
There is one basic and generic professional right of engineers, the moral right to exercise
responsible professional judgment in pursuing professional responsibilities.Pursuing these
responsibilities involves exercising both technical judgment and reasoned moral convictions.
This basic right can be referred to as the right of professional conscience.
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Right of Conscientious Refusal
The right of Conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in unethical behaviour and to
refuse to do so solely because one views it as unethical. Two situations to be considered.
1. Where there is widely shared agreement in profession as to whether an act is unethical Here,
professionals have a moral right to refuse to participate in such activities.
2. Where there is room for disagreement among reasonable people over whether an act is
unethical. Here, it is possible that there could be different ethical view points from the
professional and the employer. In such cases the engineers can have a limited right to turn down
assignments that violates their personal conscience only in matters of great importance such as
threats to human life.
This right also depends on the ability of the employer to reassign the engineer to alternate
projects without serious economic hardships to the organization. The right of professional
conscience does not extend to the right to be paid for not working.
Right to Recognition
Right to Recognition involves two parts.
The right to reasonable remuneration gives the moral right for fighting against corporations
making good profits while engineers are being paid poorly. Also is the case where patents are
not being rewarded properly by the corporations benefiting from such patents.
The other right to recognition is non-monetary part of recognition to the work of engineers.
But what is reasonable remuneration or reasonable recognition is a difficult question and
should be resolved by discussions between employees and employers only.
Professional Rights & Ethical Theories
1. Rights Ethics:
The most basic human right, which needs no justification, as per A.I.Meldon, is to pursue ones
legitimate (those that do not violate others rights) interests. The right to pursue legitimate
interests gives a person right to pursue professional moral obligations. This may be viewed as a
human right of conscience directly derived from the basic human right.
2. Duty Ethics:
I have a right to something only because others have duties or obligations to allow me (and not
interfere) to do so. If we derive the meaning of „others as employers, then the basic professional
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right is justified by reference to others duties to support or not interfere with the work related
exercise of conscience by professionals.
3. Utilitarianism:
Public good can be served by allowing professionals to meet their obligations to the public.
These obligations arise due to the professionals role in promoting public good. The basic goal of
producing the most good for the greatest number of people is enough to justify the right of
professional conscience.
Whistle-blowing and Its Features
Whistle blowing is an act of conveying information about a significant moral problem by a
present or former employee , outside approved channels (or against strong pressure) to someone,
in a position to take action on the problem.
The features of Whistle blowing are:
Act of Disclosure: Intentionally conveying information outside approved organizational
channels when the person is under pressure not to do so from higher -ups.
Topic: The information is believed to concern a significant moral problem for the organization.
Agent: The person disclosing the information is an employee or former employee.
Recipient: The information is conveyed to a person or organization who can act on it.
Types of Whistle Blowing
External Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information outside the organisation.
Internal Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information to someone within the organization
but outside the approved channels.
Either type is likely to be considered as disloyalty, but the second one is often seen as less
serious than the latter. From corporations‟ point of view both are serious because it leads to
distrust, disharmony, and inability of the employees to work together.
Open Whistle blowing: Individuals openly revealing their identity as they convey the
information.
Anonymous Whistle blowing: Individual conveying the information conceals his/her identity.
Procedures to be followed before Whistle Blowing
Except for extreme emergencies, always try working through normal organizational channels.
Be prompt in expressing objections. Proceed in a tactful manner with due consideration to the
feelings of others involved. As much as possible, keep supervisors informed of your actions, both
informally and formally. Be accurate in observations and claims and keep all formal records
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documenting relevant events. Consult colleagues for advice and also to avoid isolation. Consult
the ethics committee of your professional society before going outside the organization. Consult
a lawyer regarding potential legal liabilities.
A great deal of introspection and reflection are required before WB. Motive should neither be
for revenge upon fellow employee, supervisor or company nor in the hope of future gains like
book contracts or speaking tours etc.
Conditions to be satisfied before Whistle Blowing
Richard T. De George suggests the following:
The harm that will be done by the product to the public is serious and considerable.The
individual makes his/her concern known to his/her superiors . If one does not get any proper
response from immediate superiors, then one should exhaust the channels that are available
within the organization including the board of directors. One must have documented evidence
that would convince a reasonable and impartial observer that ones view of the situation is correct
and the company policy is wrong.There must be strong evidence that making the information
public will in fact prevent the threatened serious harm.
Prevention of Whistle Blowing
The following actions will prevent/reduce whistle blowing:
Giving direct access to higher levels of management by announcing „open door policies with
guarantee that there wont be retaliation. Instead such employees should be rewarded for
fostering ethical behavior in the company. This gives greater freedom and promotes open
communication within the organization. Creation of an Ethics Review Committee with freedom
to investigate complaints and make independent recommendations to top management. Top
priority should be given to promote ethical conduct in the organization by top management.
Engineers should be allowed to discuss in confidence, their moral concerns with the ethics
committee of their professional societies. When there are differences on ethical issues between
engineers and management, ethics committee members of the professional societies should be
allowed to enter into these discussions. Changes and updations in law must be explored by
engineers, organizations, professional societies and government organizations on a continuous
basis.
Employee Rights
Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being an employee.
Employee rights are:
There should be no discrimination against an employee for criticizing ethical, moral or legal
policies and practices of the organization. The organization will not also discriminate against an
employee for engaging in outside activities or for objecting to an organization directive that
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violates common norms of morality. The employee will not be deprived of any enjoyment of
reasonable privacy in his/her workplace. No personal information about employees will be
collected or kept other than what is necessary to manage the organization efficiently and to meet
the legal requirements. No employee who alleges that her/his rights have been violated will be
discharged or penalized without a fair hearing by the employer organization. Some clear
examples: falsifying data, avoidance on the safety of a product
Discrimination
Discrimination generally means preference on the grounds of sex, race, skin colour, age or
religious outlook. In everyday speech, it has come to mean morally unjustified treatment of
people on arbitrary or irrelevant grounds. Therefore to call something „Discrimination‖ is to
condemn it. But when the question of justification arises, we will call it „Preferential Treatment
.
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual Property is a product of the human intellect that has commercial value Many of the
rights of the ownership common to real and personal property are also common to Intellectual
Property Intellectual Property can be bought, sold, and licensed Similarly it can be protected
against theft and infringement by others
Patent, Design & Trademark together with Copyright form TOTAL
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Patent
Derived from the Latin word „LITTERAE PATENTES which means „Open Letters or „Open
Documents to confer rights and privileges. A contract between an Inventor and the Government
An exclusive privilege monopoly right granted by the Government to the Inventor Invention may
be of an Industrial product or process of manufacture Invention should be new, non-obvious,
useful and patentable as per Patents Act The right to the inventor is for limited period of time
and valid only within the territorial limits of a country of grant.
Examples: a drug compound, a tool, maybe software effects
DESIGN
Meant for beautifying an industrial product to attract the consumer public Shaping,
Configuration or Ornamentation of a vendible Industrial product Exclusive „Design Rights to the
originator for a limited term
Patents & design embrace the production stage of an industrial activity
TRADE MARK
Trade Mark is a name or symbol adopted for identifying goods Public can identify from the
Trade Mark from whom the product is emanating Trade Marks protection is given for an
industrial product by the Government Examples: Channel No.5s smell, Jacque Villeneuves face!
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COPY RIGHTS
The right to original literary and artistic works
Literary, written material
Dramatic, musical or artistic works
Films and audio-visual materials
Sound recordings
Computer Programmes/software
SOME databases
Example: Picassos Guernica, Microsoft code, Lord of the Rings
Need For A Patent System
Encourages an inventor to disclose his invention
Encourages R & D activities as the industries can make use of the technology, & avoids
reduntant research
Provides reasonable assurance for commercialisation
Provides an inducement to invest capital in the new lines of production and thus , help for
technical development and upgradation.
One may get a very good return of income through Patent Right on the investment made in
R&D.
Effect of Patent
A patentee gets the exclusive monopoly right against the public at large to use, sell or
manufacture his patented device.
A patentee can enforce his monopoly right against any infringement in the court of law for
suitable damages or profit of account.
The Government ensures full disclosure of the invention to the public for exchange of exclusive
monopoly patent right to the inventor.
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UNIT V - GLOBAL ISSUES
1. Give an account of Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide's pesticide-manufacturing plant in Bhopal, India leaked
40 tons of the deadly gas, methyl isocyanate into a sleeping, impoverished community - killing
2,500 within a few days, 10000 permanently disabled and injuring 100,000 people. Ten years
later, it increased to 4000 to 7000 deaths and injuries to 600,000.
Risks taken:
Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to more than 75% capacity as against Union
Carbides spec. that it should never be more than 60% full.
The companys West Virginia plant was controlling the safety systems and detected leakages thro
computers but the Bhopal plant only used manual labour for control and leak detection.
The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly concentrated, burns parts of body with which it comes
into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying lungs.
Causal Factors:
Three protective systems out of service
Plant was understaffed due to costs.
Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic material.
The accident occurred in the early morning.
Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly built) town located very close to the plant
fence.
Workers made the following attempts to save the plant:
They tried to turn on the plant refrigeration system to cool down the environment and slow the
reaction. (The refrigeration system had been drained of coolant weeks before and never refilled -
- it cost too much.)
They tried to route expanding gases to a neighboring tank. (The tank's pressure gauge was
broken and indicated the tank was full when it was really empty.)
They tried to purge the gases through a scrubber. (The scrubber was designed for flow rates,
temperatures and pressures that were a fraction of what was by this time escaping from the tank.
The scrubber was as a result ineffective.)
They tried to route the gases through a flare tower -- to burn them away. (The supply line to the
flare tower was broken and hadn't been replaced.)
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They tried to spray water on the gases and have them settle to the ground -- by this time the
chemical reaction was nearly completed. (The gases were escaping at a point 120 feet above
ground; the hoses were designed to shootwater up to 100 feet into the air.)
In just 2 hours the chemicals escaped to form a deadly cloud over hundreds of thousands of
people incl. poor migrant labourers who stayed close to the plant.
2. What are the benefits of Multi National corporations doing business in less developed
countries for both the MNCs and the host country?
Benefits to MNCs:
Inexpensive labour
Availability of natural resources
Favourable tax conditions
Fresh markets for products
Benefits to developing host countries:
New jobs
Greater pay and greater challenge
Transfer of advanced technology
Social benefits from sharing wealth
3. What are the three senses of relative values?
3.1. Ethical Relativism
• Actions are morally right in a particular society if they are approved by law, custom, or other
conventions of the society.
3.2. Descriptive Relativism
• Value beliefs and attitudes differ from culture to culture and this is a fact.
3.3. Moral Relationalism or Contextualism (Ethical pluralism)
• Moral judgements should be made in relation to factors that vary between issues. Hence it is
not possible to formulate rules that are simple and applicably to all situations.
4. Which standards should guide engineers’ conduct when working in foreign countries?
Alternate 1: „W hen in Rome, do as the Romans do
Alternate 2. Follow the identical practices which were followed in the home country.
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Both are unacceptable. A via media should be found based on the context.
5. What are the International Rights as enumerated by Thomas Donaldson?
The right to freedom of physical movement
The right to ownership of property
The right to freedom from torture
The right to a fair deal
The right to non-discriminatory treatment
The right to physical security
The right to freedom of speech and association
The right to minimal education
The right to political participation
The right to subsistence
6. What can MNCs do to promote morally just measures? Or what are Richard T. De
George’s guidelines for moral promotion by MNCs?
MNCs business should do more overall good than bad towards the economy of the host country
than doing good to a few corrupt leaders in oppressive regimes.
They must respect laws and regulations of the local country as long as they do not violate basic
moral rights.
They must pay a living wage, even when local companies fail to pay such a wage, but otherwise
pay only enough to attract competent workers.
It is permissible for the US to transfer dangerous technology like asbestos production to another
country and then simply adopt that countrys safety laws only under the following conditions.
– Workers may be so desperate for income to feed their families that they will work
under almost any conditions
– Pay workers for the extra risk
Good judgements exercised in good faith, than abstract principles, is the only way to address
practical problems.
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7. Write in brief about Technology Transfer and Appropriate Technology?
7.1. Technology Transfer:
„The process of moving technology to a novel setting and implementing there.
Novel setting is any situation containing at least one new variable relevant to success or failure
of given technology
Transfer of technology from a familiar to a new environment is a complex process
7.2. Appropriate Technology:
Identification, transfer, and implementation of the most suitable technology for a new set of
conditions Conditions include social factors that go beyond routine economic and technical
engineering constraints. Identifying them requires attention to an array of human values and
needs that may influence how a technology affects the novel situation
Intermediate technology
8.How is environment degraded?
By causing injuries to nature .Usually this damage is caused slowly. Sometimes this also happens
in sudden strikes
Misuse of our resources, fouling our environment
Practising growths in consumptions and population leading to non-availability of resources
Industrial activity denudes land(to destroy all plant and animal life), pollutes atmosphere and
water, reduces the yield from sea and land
9.What are the questions to be answered by Engineers in their role as experimenters?
How does an industry affect the environment?
How far it can be controlled?
Whether protective measures are available and implemented?
Whether engineers can ensure safe & clean environment?
10.What is acid rain? What are its effects?
Acid rain:
pH of normal rain is 5.6
pH of rainfall in north eastern areas of North America is 3.9 to 4.3.
It is 10 to 100 times more acidic than normal. This is „acid rain.
Snowmelt into water releases huge amount of acid which got frozen during winter.
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Effects:
„Acid shock from snowmelt causes mass destruction of fish. On long term it also harms fish
eggs and sources of food. Thousands of lakes were killed by acid rain in Scandinavia and
North America. The causes are burning of fossil fuels leading to release of SO2 in particular
and Nitrogen oxides. Problems of Sweden caused by Industrial plants in England and North
Europe. Problems of North America caused by utilities in Ohio valley, the largest polluter of
SO2 in USA.Some of the potential changes are still unknown. Micro organisms in soil are
being affected. Groundwater is polluted but its ultimate effects are not known. The effects
may be known only after another 100 years.Effect on food sources are also unclear
11.What are the other problems caused to the environment?
Build-up of CO2 from the use of fossil fuels by Industrial nations could result in
Greenhouse effect.
Damage to protective OZONE layer due to the release of Freon is related to technological
products used by the people of these nations.
12. What is Greenhouse effect?
„Greenhouse Effect is defined as „The progressive warming up of earths surface due to
blanketing effect of man made CO2 in the atmosphere.
A greenhouse is that body which allows the short wavelength incoming solar radiation to come
in, but does not allow the long wave outgoing infra red radiation to escape. The earths
atmosphere bottles up the energy of the sun and it acts like a green house, where CO2 acts like a
glass windows.
13.What are the effects of Greenhouse?
The temperature effect of the CO2 and water vapour combined together has a long range impact
on the global climate. Because of increased concentration of CO2 and due to much warmer
tropical oceans, there may occur cyclones and hurricanes and early snow melt in mountains will
cause more floods during monsoon.. Increase in global temperature can adversely effect the
world food production. At higher altitudes in the atmosphere, CO2 undergoes photochemical
reactions producing CO, which is drastically dangerous. CFCs are responsible for 20% increase
in warming. This may increase the chances of diseases in humans and animals.
14. Describe the case study of environmental degradation caused by PCB & Kanemi’s Oil?
In Southern Japan, in 1968 a large number of people suffered by disfigurement of skin,
discolouration, fatigue, numbness, respiratory distress, vomiting and loss of hair.
– 10,000 people got affected & some died
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– Two groups of 121 people each were tested and results were as follows:
It was found that fried food using rice oil produced by Kanemi company was eaten which caused
the problem. After 7 months of investigation….
– It was found that the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyl-PCB was the cause for
the effects and it was present in the rice oil.
– Rice Oil was heated at low pressure to remove the odour thro a heat exchanger and a
liquid known as KANECHLOR which contained PCB was used for heat transfer
– Pipes of the heat exchanger was corroded and led to leakage thro those pinholes.
– In fact, Kanemi had been replenishing 27 kgs of lost PCB per month for sometime
without realizing the seriousness.
Indirect path – this rice was used as chicken-feed and half of one million chickens that were
fed died.
Other Similar Effects:
Plastic bakery wrappers containing PCB mixed with ground stale bread was used as chicken-
feed and 140000 chickens had to be slaughtered in New York.
PCB leaked into fishmeal from a heating system in North Carolina plant and 12000 tons of
fishmeal were contaminated and 88000 chicken, fed with fishmeal had to be destroyed.
High pressure injection of water near Baldwin Dam in Los Angeles caused the reservoir crack
open along a fault line. The water released killed 5 and damaged property worth $14 million.
15.How can we internalise Costs of Environmental Degradation?
Time cost of a product – includes numerous factors like effect of pollution, the depletion of
energy and raw materials, social costs, etc. If these costs are internalized (added to the price),
then the cost can be charged directly to the beneficiary of the degradation of environment. It is
better to make the user to pay for all its costs than to levy higher taxes. An acceptable
mechanism for price fixing must be found by the engineer with the help of the economist,
scientist, lawyer and politician which could protect the environment through self correcting
procedures. Good design practices may give better environmental protection without added cost.
16.Give a brief account of Technology Assessment?
Engineers are said to be finding the right answers for the wrong questions
Finding the right questions is much more difficult than finding the right answers to these
questions
Engineers should
Try to assess the technology and its environmental impacts and focus on containing
the major adverse effects.
During assessment even if engineers were strongly believe that the projects have no
adverse effect, they should continue to monitor the outcome even after its
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implementation which only would give the complete picture of the consequences of
the project.
17.Write short notes on Sentient – Centered Ethics, Bio – Centric Ethics, Ecocentric Ethics
and Human – Centered Environmental Ethics.
Sentient – Centered Ethics
Sentient animals are those which feel pain and pleasure. This version of Nature-centered ethics
is advanced by some utilitarians, notably Peter Singer, who says that right action maximizing
good for all should include sentient animals as well as humans. Failure to do so leads
discrimination like racism, which is known as „Speciesism. There is always a dispute as to
whether the inherent worth of animals can be equated to human beings or not.
Bio – Centric Ethics
This regards all living organisms as having inherent worth. We should live with the virtue of
„reverence to life‟, as set forth by Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965). This will enable us to take
decisions about when life can be sacrificed.
Ecocentric Ethics
This locates inherent worth in Ecological systems and this approach is different from the other
two, as it is not individualistic. This is voiced by Aldo Leopold (1887-1948). There is another
view that ecocentric ethic does not replace socially generated human-oriented duties to family,
neighbours and humanity
Human – Centered Environmental Ethics
This is an extension of ethical theories to combat threats to human beings presented by the
destruction of nature.
18. Define computer ethics?
Computer Ethics deals with „the evaluation of and decision making in a variety of moral
problems caused by computers.
19. What shifts are caused in power relationships by Computers?
Power relationship caused by Computers:
Job Elimination:
Computers still continue to lead to elimination of jobs.
While employees cannot be paid when there is no work, all attempts are to be made by
employers to readjust work assignments and retain employees.
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The absence of this practice creates an employee or pubic backlash against introduction
of Computers.
Customer Relations:
It is very easy for a customer to notice an error in a computer printout, of the price
difference between what is shown at the shelf and what is shown in cash receipt register.
Here moral sense and long term business requirement requires that the policies should be
made favourable to consumers.
Biased Software:
A group of people with known convictions, may tend to produce software which favours
their views rather than views from all angles to let the user decide finally.
4. Stock Trading:
Automatic, hands-off trading of stocks and currency can be performed, benefiting the
trading community but it will harm the intended purposes.
5. Unrealistic Expectations:
Sales personnel have a tendency to oversell systems that are too large for customers
requirements; sometimes even those which are not ready for delivery.
6. Political Power:
By obtaining information about different groups of people regarding their attitudes and
values, the computers can be made to help politicians to make speeches, send mails, etc.
which would be appealing selectively to these groups.
7. Military Weapons:
Computerised military weapons, even if perfected, will only make opposing countries to
develop their striking or responding capability which is not healthy for the world.
20. What problems are encountered in the use of computers with properties?
The two major problems encountered in the use of computers with properties are:
Embezzlement and
Theft of software and information
21.How the problem of embezzlement takes place through computers and why?
The speed and geographic coverage of the computer system and the difficulty
of tracing the
transactions through computers makes catching the thieves troublesome.
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Computers are abused in i) stealing by employees at work, ii) stealing by non-employees or
former employees, iii) stealing from or cheating clients and consumers, iv) violating contracts for
computer sales or service and v) conspiring to use computer networks to engage in widespread
fraud.
Penalties for computer crime are mild compared to conventional crimes.
Passwords and more recently, data encryptions are used for security with limited effectiveness.
22.Explain briefly about Data and Software with respect to property problems.
Data is information stored in a computer.
Software or „program consists of i) an algorithm, ii) a source code and iii) an object code.
Software can be protected by Copyrights and Trade secret laws. Patenting on
software is
limited to detailed coding sequences but not final products. Algorithms and object codes cannot
be copyrighted. But source code can be copyrighted. Eg. Buying one copy and reproducing
dozens of copies.
23. Describe how and in what ways ‘violation of privacy’ occurs in and through
Computers.
Computers make more information available to more people. This makes protection of c omputer
privacy difficult.
1. Inappropriate Access:
Documents recorded for a crime which one did not commit but was arrested.
As a child you were arrested for drinking alcohol
Medical data about visits to a psychiatrist.
A loan default to a National Bank.
Any of the above information can be accessed by, let us say, a prospective employer during a
security check.
2. Data Bank Errors:
• Even erroneous information when generated by computers is taken to be
•
authenticated.
Immediate reaction to such wrong information may mostly prove to be incorrect.
3. Hackers:
„Hackers are people who compulsively challenge any computer security system, choke
networks, give out false information, etc.
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This can be extremely harmful.
It is a violation of property rights.
At the least, it reduces productivity by shutting down systems.
Individual privacy, national security, freedom to protect proprietary information are three values
requiring limits on access to information.
24.How has law responded to computer abuses?
A series of laws enacted to prevent abuse of information.
Information can be accessed only by consumer consent or court order.
Consumers have the right to examine and challenge information contained in computers.
25.What Professional Issues arise in Computer ethics?
Owing to the high degree of job complexity and technical proficiency required, a lot of issues
arise in engineering ethics.
1. Computer failures:
Failures can occur due to either hardware or software
Hardware errors do not occur frequently.
Software errors are the major failures of the c omputers.
Hardware errors are easily detected.
Software errors are difficult to detect.
Trial runs are absolutely essential to check the program.
2. Computer Implementation:New computer system should be attempted successfully before the
old one becomes inoperative. Many failure cases have been reported while switching over to a
new system.
3. Health Conditions: Ergonomic conditions should be implemented to reduce back problems,
provide wrist support, to become good looking.
26.Give one argument each for and against Weapons Development?
Weapons Development is a defensive measure against greater destruction by political
adversaries, terrorists and enemy states.T hey are devices to kill human beings, innocent
civilians or equally unwilling soldiers on the other side.
27.What should engineers do in taking part in Weapons development?
Engineers need to examine ones conscience to take part in any form of weapon development.
They have to consider the circumstances leading to the specific conflict and decide whether it is
justified to take part in associated weapons development. If necessary, they should refuse to be a
part of it and be prepared to face consequences.
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28.How much is being spent in Defence expenditure and how Arms Trade gets promoted
by private manufacturers of arms?
Hundreds of billions of dollars, annually, throughout the world, are being spent for military
operations. 25% of this is spent on just procurement of weapons. 17% of these are spent in
transactions across countries.
Promotion of Arms Deals:
Krupp, a family of successful arms merchants and manufacturers
Armies and navies invested in Krupps nickel steel armour Then Krupp made chrome steel shells
that can pierce nickel leading to further investment by military. Then they made a high-carbon
armour plate that can resist the new shells resulting in more orders Then Krupp again produces,
„capped shot with explosive noses which can pierce through the high-carbon armoured plate also
Arms deals continued to flourish
Vickers and Schneider-another arms manufacturer
Supplying arms to Chinese, Japanese and Russians
Pointing out the growth of the Japanese navy to Chinese
Pointing out the growth of the Chinese to their rivals, Russians
Russia – Japanese war in 1905 was useful for the cause of arms manufacturers.
Russians lost the war, hence ordered fresh arms for rehabilitation
Japanese won the war, but were upset since terrible bloodbath was caused by Russians machine
guns on land.
29.Describe the destructive nature and power of weapons and their development?
• Towards the end of World W ar II, night raids sometimes on civilian areas were very common.
The deaths caused by Atom bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki were not more than the deaths
caused by single air raids in World War II. But they were horrible because of their power in
rapid delivery of destructive power in immense concentration. Hiroshima Bomb – equivalent
to 20000T of TNT powder carried on 267 bogies of railroad (2 miles long) for one bomb –
again equivalent to 740-B52 bombers to carry this load. USSR exploded Hydrogen bombs in
1960 – 50 & 60 mega ton range for tests with capabilities such as:2000 to 3000 times
powerful than Hiroshima bomb 4000 to 6000 miles long train required to carry an equivalent
amount of TNT powder which will take 100 hours to pass any point Will require one and a
half million planes +(bombers) to carry the powder
Towards the end of cold war
USSR had 5800 megatons (9500 warheads on 2700 launchers) and
USA had 3300 megatons (10800 warheads on 2000 launchers)
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30.Illustrate the involvement of engineers in Weapons Development with examples.
Bob is employed by a firm manufacturing anti- personnel bombs. These bombs tie up much of
the enemys resources in treating the wounded who survive its explosion (by showering its
fragments on to the victims). Though he does not like to be involved in bomb mfr., he justifies
himself that someone would have to mfr them. If he does not, then someone else will. Of course,
his family also needs a steady income.
A chemical engineer, Mary, got into napalm mfg when she was promoted. She does not like
wars, but she feels that govt. knows better about international dangers. She also knows that if she
continues doing well in her job, she will again be promoted to work on a commercial product.
Ron is a specialist in missile control and guidance. He knows that he was one of the engineers
instrumental in keeping any potential enemy in check through his work. At least, there is enough
mutual deterrence for a third world war.
Joanne is an electronics engineer working also on avionics for fighter planes that are sold abroad.
She does not want these planes to be sold to hostile countries. Since she does not have any say
on who should be their customers, she even alerts occasionally her journalist friends with
information about her work which she feels all public should have.
Anyone who is involved in weapons development should be very clear as to his/her motives for
being in the industry.
31.What are the Problems of Defense Industry in brief?
Large military build-ups, massive projects all lead to unethical business practices and the
urgency of completion of the weapons projects does not allow proper controlling and monitoring.
Technology creep – development of cruise missiles alters diplomatic arrangements. The impact
of secrecy surrounding any defense activity. Overall effect of defense spending on economy
32.Explain the problems of defense industry with examples.
Large military build-ups: $2 billion cost overrun on the development of C5-A cargo plane
reported to the public by Ernest Fitzgerald due to poor operating efficiencies in defense industry.
He pointed out how large suppliers felt secure in not complying to cost-cutting plans but small
contractors were willing.
25% firms hold 50%of all defense contracts and 8 firms conduct 45% of defense research.
Technology creep: The arms are not only growing in size, it is also becoming better. The
development of a new missile or one that can target more accurately, by one country, can upset
or destabilize a diplomatic negotiation. Sometimes this fad for modernization leads to
undesirably consequences. The F15 fighter planes were supposed to be fastest and most
maneuverable of its kind but most were not available for service due to repairs, defects and lack
of spares. Engineers should be beware of such pitfalls.
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3. Impact of secrecy: Secrecy poses problems to engineers. Engineers should be aware of the
answers to the following questions:
Should discoveries of significance to military be informed to govt.? Can they be shared
with other researchers, in other countries? Should they be withheld from the scientific
and public community? Will the secrecy in weapons development will also serve to hide
corruption or their mistakes in defense establishments? Can secrecy help the promotion
of weapons systems without criticism or interference from outsiders?
Effect on economy: Every dollar spent on defense produces less jobs than what could be
provided for by using the resource on other neglected sectors such as education and road
development. May be a changeover by training defense engineers to use their designs, processes
and techniques to bring about better, competitive civilian products is what would be the most
appropriate thing to do now.
33.What are the difficulties in Decommissioning Weapons?
Even now, shells (duds or live) which landed about 90 years back during World War I are found
by farmers during ploughing. Special bomb disposal squads are being kept busy with hundreds
of calls. There are, still more, unexploded and hidden bombs allover the world that fell during
World War II. Severed limbs and dead bodies are being discovered in lands filled with mines in
Cambodia and Vietnam in 1960s and70s. Anti-personnel weapons are found in Afghanistan,
Angola, Bosnia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Somalia. These weapons are easily spread by air
but are very difficult and dangerous to detect and remove. About 100 million landmines remain
still scattered in the above countries as per estimates by U.S.State dept. Landmines present a
serious ethical dilemma to leaders who want to be ethical in wars also Design, mfr, deployment
and eventually their disposal is a huge experiment. Widespread ignorance on radiation amongst
the public Gas warfare experiments, Anthrax carriers, nuclear weapons all cause both known and
unknown problems Engineers dealing with dangerous material should consider both the intended
use and also the unintended consequences and also their disposal.
34.Which studies are more useful to ‘engineer managers’ than even engineering?
Richard L.Meehan, a civil engg graduate from MIT, was retained by General Electric as a
consultant to testify before Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the capability of GEs nuclear
plant in California, U.S.A. to withstand earthquakes. He found, while trying to understand the
effect of earthquakes on nuclear plants, that
His basic study of physics is more useful in studying this area compared to the more advanced
studies in engg.
His understanding of risk analysis was based not only on probability theory but also on value
judgement about safety.
But more interesting was that understanding people was more important than anything else.
Person oriented skills are as important to engineers as technical skills.
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35.Why managements prefer to make engineers as managers than non-engineers? / Why
engineers find management positions attractive?
Engineers undergo the most intensive technical training amongst professionals. But still, many
of them move to managerial positions early in their career for which they received no training.
Organisations find it easier to teach the business side to engineers than teaching engineering to
non-engineers. They also value the quantitative analysis, strong work-ethics, and confidence in
problem solving exhibited by engineers. Engineers also prefer the management attractive, since
career in management offers better recognition than technical track.
36.‘Managers’ responsibility is to conduct business to increase profits’. Discuss.
Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said „The social responsibility of business is to increase its
profits……. The responsibility of managers is to conduct business in accordance with their
stockholders desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while
conforming to he basic rules of society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in
ethical custom
The ethical custom referred by Friedman means only „refraining from fraud, deception and
corruption. But Martin and Schinzinger say that Friedman is not correct in saying that managers
ethics reduce to only responsibility to maximize profits for stockholders.
The primary responsibility of managers is to produce product or service while maintaining
respect for persons, including customers, employees and public.
Ethically, personnel and safety comes first before profits. By definition, compared to charitable
institutions, religions, organizations, etc organizations and corporates operate only for profits.
But the ultimate goal of managers should be to make valuable products that are also profitable
since profit making is one of the conditions to be in business. Good business and sound ethics go
together. Hence the moral roles of managers and engineers are complementary and not opposed.
Engineer managers have two major responsibilities – promoting and ethical climate and
resolving conflicts.
37.Explain how Ethical Climate is promoted in organizations through examples.
There are highly ethical organizations, examples of some of which are given below: 1. Marilyn
Hamilton, founded Quickie Designs in 1980, who was a teacher and athlete who was paralyzed
in hang-gliding accident. A highly mobile and versatile wheel chair was designed weighing 26
pounds, half the weight of chairs that were currently produced. The company grew up within a
decade to $65 millions in sales. It had a policy of customer sponsored sports events for young
people in wheelchairs. It is relatively small (500 strong) and exceptionally committed.
2. Martin Mariette Corpn began an ethics program in 1985 emphasizing basic value like honesty
and fairness and responsibility for environment and high product quality. They drafted a code of
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conduct, conducted and ethics workshop for managers and created effective procedures for
employees to express their ethical concerns.
3. Texas Instruments (TI) is an example of an ethical large corporation emphasizing on trust,
respect for other persons, etc. TI appointed a full time Ethics Director, Carl Skooglund. He
surveyed to know the ethical concerns of employees and their awareness. He conducted
workshops on ethics, wrote brochures and was directly to all employees through a confidential
phone line. Even though they made it clear that unprofessional conduct would not be tolerated,
the focus was on supporting ethical conduct than punishing wrong doers.
4. A large defense contractor started an ethics program that was not successful. Higher
management viewed the program as a success but the professional employees considered it as a
sham/farce for public relations and window dressing. The primary difficulty was the gap between
the intentions of top management and the unchanged behaviour of the Senior managers.
38.What steps can be taken to improve the ethical climate by managers?
Ethical values and their full complexity are widely acknowledged and appreciated by managers
and engineers. Neither profits nor promoting the interests of the organization is neglected but the
moral limits on profit-seeking go beyond simply obeying the law and avoiding fraud.
The sincere use of ethical language is recognized as a legitimate part of corporate dialogue. This
is done either by formulating corporate code of ethics or by including ethical responsibilities in
job descriptions at all levels.Top management must set a moral tone, in words, in policies and by
personal example. Everyone should be confident that management is serious about ethics.There
must be procedures for conflict resolution. Managers should be trained to resolve conflicts and
on the other hand, a person should be exclusively made to have confidential discussions about
moral concerns.
39.What are the most common conflicts?
Conflicts over schedules, depending mostly on support depts. but where managers do not have
any control.
Conflicts over which is the most important dept or function at a given time
Conflicts over personnel resources
Conflicts over technical issues
Conflicts over administrative procedures
Personality conflicts
Conflicts over costs
40. Can conflicts be managed by force or authority? How are different conflicts resolved?
„I am in-charge - see it my way or I will fire you‟. This is generally perceived as self-defeating.
Conflict arrangement sometimes means tolerating and even inviting some forms of conflict
Manager‟s task is to create climate in which conflicts are addressed constructively
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Personality conflicts are ranked relatively low in intensity but they are most difficult to resolve.
They are generally woven with technical/c ommunication problems.Properly managed technical
and ethical conflicts are usually fruitful and not harmful. Differing views provide opportunity for
improved creativity.
41.What are the 4 ways to resolve conflicts among persons suggested by Harvard
Negotiation Project?
People: Separate people from the problem.
Even though both the people and the problem are important, the personal aspect of the conflict
should be separated from the problem to deal with it better. On personality clashes, the focus
should be on behaviour and not on people.
Interests: Focus on interests and not positions
This principle applies most clearly to personnel matters and ethical views, rather than technical
disputes. Positions are stated views but these may not really express their best interests.
Options: Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do. Create a wide range of
options especially in technical and ethical issues and facilitate discussions.
Criteria: Insist that the result be based on some objective standard.
Beyond the goals of efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction, it is important to develop a
sense of fair process in how the goals are met.
42.What is the nature of work for Engineers as Consulting Engineers?
Consulting engineers work in private practice. They earn by getting their fee for services
rendered. They have greater freedom in decision making compared to salaried employees. But
they also have a need to earn a living.
43.What are the major areas of work for engineer consultants?
Advertising
Competitive bidding
Contingency fees
Safety and client needs
44.‘Advertising, once thought to be unprofessional has now been accepted by law’ –
Explain.
Before 1976, advertising was thought to be „ unprofessional‟, in U.S.A. The state felt that work
should be won through reputation as engineer and not through advertisement..But in 1976,
Supreme Court ruled that Ban on professional advertising is an improper restraint. It reduces
public awareness of available professional services. They keep prices higher than they might
otherwise. Now the focus has been shifted to restrain deceptive advertising which is done
through:
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Outright lies
Half-truths
Exaggeration
Making false suggestions or implications
Obfuscation (confusion or not being clear) created by ambiguity, vagueness
Manipulation of the unconscious
45.When is advertising considered to be deceptive?
Example 1: A consulting firm played actually a very minor role in a well-known project
Situation 1: Its brochure claims that it played a major role
Situation 2: It makes no claim but only shows the picture of the project
Situation 3: It shows the picture along with a footnote in fine print the true details about its role
in the project
Situation 4: If the same statement is printed in larger type and not as footnote.
Example 2: An ad shows an electronics device to convey that the item is routinely produced and
available for sale. But actually the ad shows only the prototype or mock-up and the item is just
being developed.
46.What are the norms to be followed by ethical consultants in advertising?
Generally consumer products can be advertised suppressing the negative aspects and even some
exaggeration is allowed.But advertisement of professional services like engineering services is
governed by strict norms.
NSPE forbids the following:
―the use of statements containing a material misrepresentation of fact or omitting a material fact
necessary to keep the statement from being misleading; statements intended or likely to create
an unjustified expectation; statements containing prediction of future success; statements
containing an opinion as to the quality of the showmanship including the use of slogans, jingles
or sensational language format.‖
Some degree of solicitation may be useful in encouraging healthy competition Or will it open
the door to people who are not honest, who criticize unfairly or who exaggerate the merits of
their services? In any case, restrictions on misleading advertisement are a must.
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47.Why was Competitive Bidding prohibited earlier and then why was it approved by
courts?
Competitive bidding was prohibited for quite sometime due to the following reasons:
Consulting jobs, unlike industrial and construction work, are not suitable for precise cost
estimates and hence precise bids. Here competitive bidding, would encourage cutting safety and
quality, in case of lower bids and padding/over designing in the case of higher bids. Later,
Competitive bidding was approved by Courts of law on the reasoning that free trade is restrained
in an unfair manner.
48.When consulting engineers reject competitive bidding, what can be the basis of their
selection?
Consulting engineers, in the absence of competitive bidding can be selected only based on their
reputation and proven qualification. But younger, competent engineers may be disadvantaged by
this method.
49. What is your understanding of Contingency Fees?
Contingency fee is dependent on some specific conditions beyond normal, satisfactory
performance in work.
A client may hire a consultant engineer to find methods of cost saving on an ongoing project to
save a minimum of 10%. If consultant saves 10%, he will get his fee; otherwise no fee will be
paid. The fee can be either an agreed amount or a %age of savings.
When the fee is a %age of saving, it becomes „contingency fee‟. In many cases, consultants tend
to be biased and in order to gain the fee, they may specify inferior design or process to cut costs.
50.How does NSPE address the issue of ‘Contingency Fee’?
NSPE has addressed this issue as follows:
―An engineer shall not request, propose, or accept a professional commission on a contingent
basis under circumstances in which his professional judgement may be compromised, or when a
contingency provision is used as a device for promoting or securing a professional c
ommission.‖
51. When does the ‘contingency fee’ become permissible?
To decide whether „contingency fee‟ practice may be allowed or not, the potential gains should
be weighed against the potential losses. Hence, this again calls for contextual reasoning based on
ethical theories, which provide a framework for assessing morally relevant issues of the problem.
52.How ‘Safety and client needs’ should be addressed by consulting engineers?
Consulting engineers have greater freedom with wider areas of responsible decision making
compared to salaried engineers. This creates special difficulties for consulting engineers.In
„design-only‟ projects, consultants do not have any role in the construction or implementation as
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per the design specs. Ideally, only the designer would really know the areas of difficulty in
execution. Even when changes in design are required during execution, the consultant may not
be around to effect the changes Client may not have capable people for inspection of the work
based on the consultant‟s design. Does the consultant have a moral responsibility to follow
through the design in execution In any case, job safety is one prime responsibility of the
consultant engineer
53.What are the reasons that cause ‘Disputes’? Who is the major loser in any dispute?
Large projects involve owners, consultants and contractors and many participants at various
levels in these three organizations. Overlapping responsibilities, fragmented control, delays and
inability to resolve disputes are some of the problems encountered during these projects.
Resolving disputes becomes especially difficult when projects last for several years and
connected personnel also change during this period. Owners have the most to lose in such
situations. Hence they try to shift the risks to others. Consulting engineers are generally tied to
the contract provisions and they do not try any innovative ideas (do not want to add risks)
All this have led to considerable litigation and any litigation is time consuming and costly.
54.What are the steps to be taken resolve disputes?
Define how risks are to be apportioned and payment of fees to be made
Make contractual provisions for dispute solving vehicles to avoid legal battles in lines of
mediation – arbitration
Mediator attempts to resolve first and if it fails, the arbitrators‟ decision should be final.
National Joint Board for settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes will be called to provide a leaking
board and appeals board.
The Consulting Engineer, from the ―social experimentation‖ nature of engineering, has the
obligation to include such clauses in contracts and should make sure that these clauses are
adhered to by all.
55. What is the work done by Engineers as Experts?
Engineers, in their position as experts, explain the happenings of the past in terms of Causes of
accidents, malfunctions of equipment and other technological events. They also help in events of
the future like, public planning, potential of patents and policy making (in technology)
56. How should Expert Engineers function?
They should function as impartial seekers of facts & Communicators of truth but not as hired
guns i.e. advocates for lawyers, officials, etc
57. What are the types of cases, expert witnesses are called upon to testify in court & what
are the stakes?
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Types Of Cases
I. Airplane crash
II. Defective products
III. Personal injury
IV. Property damage
V. Traffic accident
Stakes
Legal liabilities
Economic interests
Reputations of corpns. and professionals
58.What are the Expert engineers’ responsibilities towards their hirers?
They should
Present their qualifications to the client
Investigate thoroughly the cases entrusted to them.
Testify in court
59.How should the expert witness exhibit one’s ‘confidentiality responsibility’?
The expert witnesses must
Not divulge their investigations unless called upon to do so by the court
Not volunteer evidence favourable to the opponent
Answer questions truthfully when opposing attorney puts forth pertinent questions
But he should not just be the client‟s mouthpiece.
60. What are the aims of a legal system?
Aims Of A Legal System is
To administer a complex system of legal rights that define legal justice achieved through
adversarial relationships, with rules about admissible forms of evidence and permissible forms of
testimony
61. What is the role of an expert in a court system consistent with Professional standards
(codes of ethics)?
Role of an Expert in a Court System
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Experts must earnestly try to be impartial in identifying and interpreting complicated data
thrown up by the complexity of modern science and technology to help the courts Ideally, if
courts pay the expert witness, the expert will become totally unbiased. But it is a very costly
issue So parties to the dispute are called upon to pay and hire them on both sides and also allow
them to be cross examined by both sides
62.What is the difference between Eye witness and Expert witness?
Eye Witness
Is permitted to testify on observed and to some extent perceived facts.
Expert Witness
Is permitted to testify on facts, perceptions and interpretations of facts in the area of their
expertise
To comment on opponent‟s expert witness‟ view
To report on applicable professional standards
63.What are the types of abuses of Engineers as Expert witnesses?
Expert witnesses are abused in the following ways:
Hired Guns
Financial Bias
Ego Bias
Sympathy Bias
64.Write short notes on: a) Hired Guns, b) Financial Bias, c) Ego Bias and Sympathy Bias
a) Hired Gun
An unscrupulous (unprincipled, crooked, immoral) engineer
Makes his living by helping lawyers to portray facts in favour of their clients
Never tries to be objective
Violates standards of honesty and care in conducting investigations
Overall a shame on engineering community
Financial Bias
The expert witness is biased to the party which pays more money The bias increases
substantially when payments are agreed as Contingency Fee to be paid only in case the hirer
wins the case .Full time forensic engineers, being dependent on lawyers for their living, try to
create a reputation of a winning engineer.
Ego Bias
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Competitive attitudes, being on one side of the disputing parties makes an expert, egoistic and
makes him influence judgments. They start identifying themselves with their side of the dispute
Sympathy Bias
The plight of the victims and their sufferings can invoke sympathy from the expert witness
This upsets impartial investigation of facts
65.What is needed of the Expert Engineers?
Engineer Experts should maintain their integrity in the face of all the above biases Courts also
must rely on balance provided by expert witnesses on both sides of the case and provide
opportunities to lawyers to remove the bias by cross-examination
66.What is the work of Engineers as Advisers?
Engineers act as Advisers in Planning and Policy-Making like Economists, sociologists, urban
planners, etc. In Policy-Making they advise about the Cost benefit analysis of alternate solutions
for transport, housing, energy, defense, etc. In Planning they check the feasibility, risks and
benefits of the specific technological projects which affect public in local c ommunities
67. What are the Stakes for the engineer advisers?
Their stakes are:
Opposing political views
Social perspectives
Economic interests
And their individual values like,
Honesty
Public trust
Respect for common good
68How should Engineer advisers act?
Advisers are to:
Chart all realistic options
Carefully assess each under different assumptions about future contingencies
Act favourable to the client by basing their studies on particular assumptions about future
contingencies
69.What are the factors that influence Advisers?
Advisers are influenced by:
Large amounts of money involved
Direct and overt (obvious and unconcealed) pressure applied by pro or anti-people involved in
that project
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Hope of additional work in future
Their wish to get the respect of clients
70. What are the normative models of Advisers? Briefly explain each of them.
Normative Models of Advisers
Three types:
Hired Guns
Value Neutral Analysts
Value Guided Analysts
Hired Guns – This is the most undesirable role that can be played by the adviser.Here the
obligation to clients only is paramount and other values are not bothered about. Studies are made
just conforming to the client‟s wish. Adviser highlights only the favourable facts to the
customer. All the unfavourable facts are very much downplayed.
Value Neutral Analysts
Completely impartial engineers.
They identify all options and analyze factual issues of each option.
Cost-benefit analysis are made based on value criteria specified and made public
Value Guided Analysts
Responsibility to public paramount
Maintain honesty about technical facts and values
They can adopt partisan views for the good based on their professional judgment
71.What are the virtues of independent expert advisers?
Virtues of Independent Experts
Honesty- avoiding deception, being candid in stating relevant facts and truthful in interpreting
facts
Competence- being well trained, adequately experienced in the relevant field and having relevant
skills
Diligence- carrying out tasks carefully and promptly
Loyalty- avoiding conflicts of interest, maintaining confidentiality and concern for the interests
of the client
72.List the roles of engineers as ‘leaders’.
Engineers perform as Leaders in the roles of
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Managers
Business Entrepreneurs
Consultants
Academics and
Govt officials.
73.What is leadership and who are moral leaders?
Leadership is „Successfully moving a group towards its common goal‟. But Moral leaders are
those who move the group successfully towards goals which do public good and not evils i.e. the
goals must be „morally valuable‟. Hence Moral Leaders can be defined as,„The individuals,
who direct, motivate, organize, creatively manage and move groups toward morally valuable
goals‟
74. ‘Technologists were best qualified to govern because of their technical expertise’.
Discuss in detail.
Mussolini and Hitler were great leaders, but not „Moral Leaders‟, since their goals were not
morally valuable.„An Utopian society shall be governed by a philosopher-king whose moral
wisdom best qualifies him to rule‟ – Plato „Technologists were best qualified to govern because
of their technical expertise, as well as their logical, practical and unprejudiced minds‟–
Frederick Taylor
But no single profession has the only right to moral governance of society. Leadership is also
moving away from any narrow professional interests. Moral leadership is not „dominance by
elite‟, but stimulating groups toward morally desirable ends.
75. Explain Moral Creativity.
Moral creativity is
Identifying most important values in particular situations
Focusing on them through effective communication within the group.
Deep commitments grounded in integrity to implement them.
Creativity consists in identifying new possibilities for applying, extending and putting into
practice, rather than inventing values.
76. How participation in Professional Societies will improve moral leadership?
Professional Societies
Promote continuing education for their members
Unify the profession, speak and act on behalf of them
Are a forum for communicating, organizing and mobilizing change within, a change which has a
moral dimension.
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Cannot take any pro-employee or pro-management stand since they have members in
management, supervision and non-management. But they can play a role in resolving moral
issuesn A moral responsibility as well as moral creativity is shared.
77.How can individuals make a difference in leadership of Professional Societies?
Stephen H. Unger, as an individual was mainly responsible for persuading IEEE to focus on
supporting responsible engineers than punishing wrong doers. He was instrumental in IEEE
presenting awards to the three BART engineers.
In 1988, NSPE created National Institute of Engineering Ethics with a mission to promote ethics
within engineering. The focus was on education rather than propaganda.. But effective
professional activity, requires a substantial trust from clients and the public. Building and
sustaining that trust is an important responsibility shared by all engineers. In this area also Moral
Leadership within professional societies is important.
78.Write short note on ‘Leadership in Communities’.
Leadership responsibilities of engineers as citizens go beyond those of non-engineers. They
should provide greater leadership in social debates about
Industrial Pollution
Automobile Safety
-
Disposal of Nuclear Waste, etc.
79.What are the different views on ‘leadership in communities’?
One view is that no one is strictly obligated to participate in public decision making. It may be a
moral ideal for citizens. An opposite view is that all are obligated to devote sometime and
energy in public policy making. Non-engineers should at least stay informed about public issues
and professionals have obligations as experts in their areas. Hence the need for identifying and
expanding areas of possible good.
80.What are the arguments for and against Voluntary Service by engineering
professionals?
Should engineering professionals offer engineering services to the needy, without charging fee
or at reduced fee? Voluntarism of this kind is already encouraged in Medicine, Law and
Education. But ABET code states ―Engineers shall not undertake or agree to perform any
engineering service on a free basis‖ and other codes also insist that engineers are obligated to
adequate compensations (which means full fee) Engineers find it difficult to donate their services
individually compared to doctors and lawyers since their output is on a shared basis But, as
suggested by Robert Baum, engineers can volunteer their services in the following areas, in
groups, either free or at cheaper than normal fee. Environmental impact studies that is harmful to
a community Health issues of polluted water and soil Minimal needs of elderly and minorities
like running water, sewage systems, electric power and inexpensive transportation.
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81.What can engineers and engineering society do to public in terms of ‘voluntary
service’?
Engineers can
Urge Govt. to expand services of the Army Corps of Engineers
Encourage students to focus their projects on service for disadvantaged groups
Encouraging corporations to cut their fee by 5 to 10% for charitable purposes.
Morally concerned Engineering Profession-
Should recognize the rights of corporations and engineers to voluntarily engage in philanthropic
engineering services.
Professional societies should endorse voluntary exercise as a desirable ideal.
Many engineers and some societies already are engaged in
Tutoring disadvantaged students
Advice local governments on their engineering problem.
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